ANDY TOSH / FRANKIE WILMOTT - Lick A Shot / Sensimilla (12")

2019 is off to a hot start as TRS present this double sided Digi-thriller from 1987 produced by Ras Sipho. Originally released on his uncle Jimmy Cliff's Oneness label, Newton “Sipho” Merritt learned his production craft from the best being naturally exposed to the music and destined to become a producer himself. In the days when Reggae was taking a digital turn, Sipho took on the duties of bringing up rising artists of that time such as Andy Tosh and Frankie Willmott to name a few. Both here featured with 'Lick A Shot" and 'Sensimilla' (aka Give Me No Rock) resurfaced here again. As far as the name "Sipho" goes, Merritt explains that when he was in South Africa, on tour with the Oneness band he saw a local woman in tears, looking at him. Through an interpreter, he found out her son had been killed in a South African uprising, looked exactly like him. “I told her that I will be her new son, but I didn’t have an African name. She called me Sipho, which means gifted in Zulu. That’s what I go by."