Wackie's first recording studio was a four-track facility, opened in a damp basement at 211th Street around 1974. Early Wackie's productions sometimes modified the creations of Lee “Scratch” Perry, using Perry’s original master tapes, but with overdubbing and remixing executed at Wackie's HQ. Tracks like deejay Jah Vill’s The Bump and The Heptones’ Revolution are noteworthy examples, and the inaugural Bullwackie's dub album, the sparse and eerie Free for All, also used some of Perry’s rhythms.
Despite patchy efforts such as Winston Dale’s wobbly Reggae Beat, a mark of distinction was made early on, with Johnny Osbourne’s Jah Children Ken Boothe’s Stop This World and John Clarke’s Recession all holding exquisite tension, heralding a Bronx slant on the roots reggae idiom, born from the harshness of its streets.
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