Tempo
Waterhouse goes digital from Tubby’s side of the street. Anthony Red Rose’s 1985 “Tempo” rode a computerized drum-and-bass foundation and became a sound-system anthem with a disputed place in digital dancehall’s origin story.
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Anthony Red Rose arrived at King Tubby’s Waterhouse studio in 1985 with a song he had already been using around sound systems. Tubby encouraged him to record it over a computerized foundation, with keyboards added around the bare digital drum and bass. “Tempo” became a Jamaican hit and a durable sound-system special. Its historical importance comes with an argument attached: Red Rose has long maintained that the computerized Tempo recording preceded Wayne Smith and King Jammy’s “Under Mi Sleng Teng.” Other chronologies place Tempo as Tubby’s response after Sleng Teng had already detonated. Rather than erase that conflict, the riddim is a perfect example of why oral reggae history sometimes needs two stories held side by side.
Where the history is argued
- The ordering of Tempo and Sleng Teng is contested. Anthony Red Rose says Tempo came first; other researched chronologies place the completed Tempo rhythm after Sleng Teng. The 1985 date and both records’ importance are not in dispute.
How they stand with the others
Studio influenceTempo belongs to the first wave of Jamaican computerized dancehall and helped establish King Tubby’s mid-1980s Firehouse sound.
Its relationship to Sleng Teng is historically important precisely because knowledgeable participants disagree on which recording came first.
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Last checked 1 September 2026