The Hookim brothers made an incredible impact in 1975 with their Channel One studio and labels. As their house band, they had the excellent Revolutionaries with their brilliant young drummer Sly Dunbar. And the studio had a fresh and exciting sound that became the sound of the moment. May of their recordings were reworkings of older riddims and they effectively sacked the back catalogues of Studio One and Treasure Isle.
However, they did create a number of fine originals and the riddim for Leroy Smart’s “Ballistic Affair” is one of them. Even though the riddim is related to Big Willie’s “College Rock”, it’s more than just a reworking of that riddim.
Leroy Smart has a very distinctive vocal style and “Ballistic Affair” is one of his best recordings. His heartfelt reading of Frankie Jones’ anti-violence lyrics became a big hit in Jamaica and the UK.
Channel One issued two good deejay cuts to the riddim, Dillinger’s “Eastman Skank” and Ranking Trevor’s heavily dubbed “Caveman Skank”. Coxsone Dodd was less than happy with the activities of the Hookim brothers and he derived some revenge by reissuing his Studio One classics and by cutting copies of their riddims.
The songwriting credits on some of these latter records are often hilarious and include the two sides of Sugar Minott’s cover of “Woman Is like A Shadow” being credited to Joe Steal and Joe Rigger, while Owen Gray’s cover of “Ballistic Affair” is credited to Copy Man. Owen’s performance can be most kindly described as ‘wooden’ and it is not helped by a mixing error on some pressings of the record. Towards the end of the first verse it prematurely fades out and then fades back in the recording. Jah Jesco’s deejay cut “Warning” is far better and the best of all is the lovely horns instrumental version, the Liberation Group’s “Jah A Fe Me”.
Lloyd “Bullwackie” Barnes also recorded the riddim and sang lead vocal for The Chosen Brothers’ “So Much Love”. An imaginative dub cut, “Reggae Disco Rocker”, appears on the “Tribesman Assault” album. In 1980, the original Channel One cut was re-used with some overdone percussion overdubs for Tristan Palmer’s “Round The World” and Captain Sinbad’s “Progress A De Best”.
(Source: Ray Hurford & Jean Scrivener’s “Rhythm Wise 3 & 4”)