Jamaican-born singer Earl Lowe aka Little Roy, began his career recording a few unsuccessful tracks with producers Coxsone Dodd and Prince Buster. He has his first number one hit on the island in 1969 with “Bongo Nyah” for Lloyd ‘The Matador’ Daley, the first song about the emerging Rastafari movement to be successful commercially.
For his song “Don’t Cross the Nation” (1970), Little Roy worked with the Wailers and producer Lee “Scratch” Perry. Starting in 1972, Roy worked with Maurice “Scorcher” Jackson and his brother Munchie. Roy recorded the songs “Tribal War” and “Prophecy” in the 1970s, and also recorded material for Lloyd Barnes backed by the Bullwackies All-Stars on the Aires imprint.
The rhythm from “Prophecy” was used by Steely & Clevie in 1990, leading to a hit record by Freddie McGregor. Roy decided to re-issue some of his old material on an album titled Prophesy. A new album, Live On, was released in 1991, and he worked with Adrian Sherwood on the 1996 album Long Time.
In September 2011 Little Roy collaborated with Prince Fatty and the Mutant Hi-Fi on an unlikely album containing versions of songs by the rock band Nirvana, Battle for Seattle, released on Ark Recordings.