Produced by Prince Far I for Cry Tuff Productions.

Special thanks to Niney The Observer
Musicians: The Soul Syndicate & The Roots Radics

Prince Far I (Michael Williams), The voice of thunder, left an enduring legacy in the course of the reggae Deejay phenomenon - the original gravel-voiced, he rocked audiences a generation before the likes of Shabba Ranks and Buju Banton; his style and lyrics were solidly based in the raw, 'native' chants of rastafari reasoning and like Big Youth, his musical waxing of serious thought-provoking vibrations touched the soul of lovers of deep reggae music in true El Shaddai form.

He graduated in the grass roots sound system world of Kingston, Jamaica and made his first recording for producer-extraordinaire Bunny 'Striker' Lee in 1970, then under the name King Cry Cry. This recording appeared on white-label 7 inch pressing and, we are informed, was called "Great Mu Ga Ru Ga", though this is not to be confused with the Sound Dimension's 1969 instrumental of the same title. During the period, he also recorded a few sides for Clement Dodd's Studio One Label, including a version of John Holt's "I Had A Talk".

Later he recorded a cut of Wink Martindale's "Deck Of Cards" for producer Winston Riley, a magnificent reggae adaption of the standard. By 1975 Prince Far I had recorded his first album, the classic "Psalms", a collection of songs adapted entirely from the biblical psalms and was produced by Bunny Lee and Lloydie Slim. The late 1970's saw the release of a second album, for Joe Gibbs, and by 1978, he'd started his own Cry Tuff Productions, working with the long established Soul Syndicate and the Roots Radics bands to produce a string of collectible albums untill his premature demise at the hand of one or more assailants. Though they may kill the body, they cannot touch the soul and Prince Far I's works will remain powerful testimonies to a noble tradition.

Ras Menelik, 1999

DubMatrix:

I haven't created new samples for this release, because all of the songs come from the previously released albums:

• Jamaican Heroes
• Free From Sin
• Musical History

The songs are all the same as the songs from the above listed albums, though there are some oddities:

• Track 5 on this release is only the last 01:58 minutes of the original track
• Tracks 7 and 8 on this release are the same

Because of all this, I find this release a bit misleading. There isn't spoken about any of the original albums/releases and the song titles are all changed so that it may look like an album with all new songs (if you listen to the songs, you'll know where the 'new' song titles come from). It's just a compilation album like 'The Golden Years 1977-1983', but that one is at least known to be a compilation and has the original song titles.

The only cool thing about this album is the photo, if you want the music I suggest you buy the original albums. Putting all information together produces the following list:

Track	Original album	Original track
1. Ten Commandments	Jamaican Heroes	1. Deck Of Life
2. Jah Footsteps	Jamaican Heroes	2. The Vision
3. Round One	Jamaican Heroes	3. Natty Champion
4. Babylon Walls	Jamaican Heroes	4. Read A Chapter
5. Cool Me Cool	Jamaican Heroes	8. Musical History
6. Jah Will Provide	Jamaican Heroes	9. Jah Will Provide
7. Falling Wall	Free From Sin	9. I And I Are The Chosen One
8. Never Defeated	Free From Sin	9. I And I Are The Chosen One
9. Mr President	Musical History	3. Tell Them About Jah Love
10. All Tears From My Eyes	Musical History	4. More We Are Together
11. Mount Zion	Free From Sin	2. When Jah Ready You Got To Move
12. Give Thanks And Praise	Free From Sin	3. Call On I In Trouble
13. Lambs Bread Collie	Free From Sin	4. Don't Deal With Folly
14. Reggae Reggae	Free From Sin	6. Reggae Music