Desmond Dekker - Nuff Respect (2006)

Desmond Dekker, a.k.a Desmond Adolphus Dacres, was the unanimous King of Ska. Dekker and his backing group the Aces had the first international Jamaican hit with Israelites. Released in 1968, it appeared on both the US and UK charts, eventually topping the UK and making Top Ten in the US. He was the first Jamaican performer to enter US markets with pure Jamaican music.

Orphaned as a teenager, Dekker began working as a welder, singing around his workplace while his coworkers encouraged him. Dekker also met Bob Marley at the plant he worked at, who was brought there by his mom to work. "We were very, very good friends," Dekker later said of Bob Marley. "I called him Robbie, he called me Iley One--it means a person who don't have no girlfriend, just eat and sleep and work" The two would go up to the roof of the plant and watch the cricket games (by day) and football games (at night), eating buns and drinking Fantas. "Bob loved to play football and I sometimes used to watch him play. I didn't play, 'cos cricket was more my thing." (See the full 1999 interview)

Dekker's next big hit, King of Ska, on which he was backed by the The Cherrypies (also known as The Maytals), became one of his early signature tunes and remains well-known among ska fans. Other hits include 007 (Shanty Town), from 1967, and It Mek (1969).

In May 2006, Dekker smoked his last spliff before suddenly dying of a heart attack at age 64. A true king. Check it.