Stuff You Gotta Watch: Rudeboy: The Story of Trojan Records
Not many labels can pride themselves on starting a cultural revolution. Born out of UK council estates and dancefloors, Trojan Records helped introduce ska, rocksteady, dancehall, and reggae to the world while inspiring a whole new generation of British youth. It's pretty impressive for a label that, up until its liquidation in 1975, operated from a warehouse in northwest London.
The story, however, has its origins "on an island far far away." As the beginning of Rudeboy: The Story of Trojan Records signals: "No Jamaica. No Trojan." Taking inspiration from a land both had once called home, founders Lee Gopthal and Chris Blackwell came together in the late 1960s and immediately started putting out chart hits like Desmond Dekker's "You Can Get It If You Really Want," Jimmy Cliff's "Wonderful World, Beautiful People," and Bob and Marcia's "Young Gifted & Black."
This documentary details Trojan Records' rise and fall—and rise again, with a little help from a 21st-century renewed interest in the label's back catalog—through loads of archival footage and compelling interviews with the likes of Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Lloyd Coxsone, Marcia Griffiths, and Dandy Livingstone. But the pièce de résistance really lies in the several dramatization sequences that capture the zeitgeist of the era and tie the entire narrative together.
Review by Ana Leorne. Check out the full archive of the Stuff You Gotta Watch column.