JAZZIE B knows a thing or two about classics. He’s been coming to Manchester since the “Electric Chair” club days he tells me as we sit overlooking Manchester city centre in the menswear department of Harvey Nichols.
Soul II Soul influenced a generation of bold fashion choices. I’m talking half-dreadlocks, half shaved heads, bold.
Far more notably though, DJ , entrepreneur and founder of the legendary funk, reggae and R&B collective, Soul II Soul, Trevor ‘Jazzie B’ Beresford Romeo had a massive contributing hand in creating some of the most memorable and catchy songs of the past two decades.
With a distinct UK swagger, Soul II Soul launched British soul music onto a worldwide stage during the 80s and the group and Jazzie B are treasured as British music icons. More so, Soul II Soul influenced a generation of bold fashion choices. I’m talking half-dreadlocks, half shaved heads, bold.
Or so I’m told. I wasn’t born when the pioneering collective was founded; in fact, Soul II Soul’s most popular hit ‘Back to Life’ and I, are now the same age.
Yet despite being in nappies when the song peaked the Top Of the Pops charts, I instinctively know that to sing the words ‘back to life’ will inspire a sing-song chorus reply of ‘back to reality’ from all and sundry.
Now, as we both mark our 25th year milestone, Jazzie B has brought back (yes, to life) the Funki Dred logo to celebrate Soul II Soul’s success for a fittingly named fashion line, Soul II Soul Classics Creation, to Harvey Nichols department store.
After experiencing visions of my mother in seizure- inducing wild prints and colourful head-wraps, I was intrigued (and a little hesitant) to see how much of the 80s was captured in the Soul II Soul collection:
“It’s the same thing. The white T-shirt is the original; I bet you were thinking it was going to be Technicolor” he laughed, with his happy North London meets Jamaican patois accent , “It is the same as it was back then.”
True, I did assume it’d be a much brighter collection. Maybe a tribal print or two.
Instead, the nine-piece line is a range of cool, urban T-Shirts and sweatshirts featuring the group’s ‘Funki Dreds’ logo that formed an important part of their uprising all those years ago.
“Funki Dreds was not just a logo, it was a movement” he proclaimed. Then, instantaneously Jazzie B began to recite the Soul II Soul mission statement, “We are the Funki Dreds and we come from a planet called ARD. We were sent to save the world from Rappattachus-Bacchus as he was mashing up all the parties. We’re pleasure givers”.
Although unsure exactly what a Rappattachus-Bacchus is, I definitely agree Soul II Soul could be considered as saviours of music, British soul music to be precise.
L’Oréal B meets Jazzie B
Originating straight out of Finsbury Park, London, the ‘Funki Dreds’ brand is to some degree a British Heritage symbol - albeit a far more working class, unconventional one.
“I was born right here in England and we had something different to the Americans.” Jazzie insisted.
“Our thing was never to copy the Americans. It was to have our own identity and they followed us. If you ever watch the The Fresh Prince of Bel Air he’s even jammin’ to our tunes in one of the episodes. I’m very good friends with DJ Jazzy Jeff and his crew and what’s interesting, even in the time when I lived in America, you could see how much influence we had on them - rather than the other way round.”
Jazzie B is very proudly British and interestingly, an unlikely Thatcherite.
He claims in the midst of her reign the Iron Lady helped “legitimise kids like him”, enabling him to “live it large” with “three stalls and a shop”.
After reminiscing about the archetypal British days of lumpy custard school dinners and spoilt milk, he shared that the concept that inspired the Funki Dreds logo came from second generational Caribbean kids wanting to find their own identity in the UK:
“We were all into the Rastafarian religion and movement. Growing up in a West Indian household you couldn’t have locks, because dreadlocks were seen as non-Christian and all that marlarkey. You have to appreciate my parents back in the day - England was the mother country and it was everything my parents adhered to – apart from country western music and Englebert Humperdink.”
Defying his parents’ wishes Jazzie B found an innovative way to live both the Christian and Rastafarian lifestyles, “I would wear a woolly tea cosy hat at home and I shaved round the side of my head so my mum couldn’t see the locks. Straight up. Two weeks later two of the other guys who were in the sound system at the same time did the same thing.”
And thus the Funki Dred was born.
The logo, the style and their later apparel established Soul II Soul as more than just a group, but a brand - which he said is ironic as back in those days “he could barely spell brand”.
At a pricey starting cost of £55, I expect the T-Shirts are little more expensive than they were in 1982 when they were first launched, yet Jazzie ensured me that we were buying a little more than just a T-Shirt.
“I wanted it to be represented properly. I wanted people to understand about the heritage. Once the new generation look into it they can dig, dig, dig into the history. So it’s substance that they’re buying. This is a lifestyle. This is something that was lived. It was born and created here in the UK and all the exponents from it leave this wonderful picture about our club culture and about our heritage.”
“So what now?” I asked.
With a fashion line in one of the UK’s luxury department stores, a Grammy, a successful record agency and even receiving the OBE honour from Her Majesty for his services to British music, it’s hard to see where else we could possibly see the Funki Dreds logo in future years.
“Well, they’ve just made a sculpture of me in London”, he smiled, “so, I guess the future for Soul II Soul is what we’ve always promoted.
“A happy face, a thumpin’ bass and a loving race.”
Soul II Soul Classics Creation is available at Harvey Nichols Manchester.
Follow L’Oréal Blackett on Twitter @LOreal_B
