Beres Hammond
Reggae’s great conversational romantic: warm, weathered and able to turn adult love into something a whole crowd sings back. Beres Hammond made intimacy feel as foundational as protest.
Beres Hammond first recorded with Zap Pow in the 1970s before establishing a solo career that moved through soul, reggae and dancehall production. His breakthrough catalog grew through songs such as “What One Dance Can Do,” “She Loves Me Now,” “Putting Up Resistance,” “Tempted to Touch” and “Rockaway.” Hammond’s voice carries age, tenderness and friction without drifting into polite background music. Producers including Willie Lindo, Donovan Germain and teams around Harmony House helped place that voice over changing Jamaican rhythms. His collaborations with Buju Banton became especially important because the contrast between Hammond’s croon and Buju’s rough deejay voice made both artists sound larger.