The reggae world has suffered another sad loss: Philip Burrell, the prolific producer better known by the nickname Fattis, died yesterday at the University Hospital of the West Indies, where he had been admitted two weeks earlier, following a heart attack. At the helm of his label Xterminator, he actively contributed to the roots and spiritual revival of the 90s. Not very productive in recent years, he had returned to business in 2011 with several riddims.
Before setting up the label that would make his name, Fattis ran in turn the label Kings & Lions, which he launched in 1984, producing Sugar Minott among others, then Vena (Pinchers, Sanchez), founded in 1986. Enough to arm himself ahead of his time. With Xterminator, founded in 1988 (under the name Exterminator), he imposed his style and gathered around him and his musicians of the Firehouse Crew (with Sly Dunbar and Dean Fraser, who even got an instrumental album, a rarity in modern reggae) a new generation of talent.
Fattis steered his own course without worrying about anyone else's work, following his vision. A discreet man, deeply Rasta, imbued with a certain mysticism (he believed in the powers of numerology and applied them in daily life), he took an active part in the return of spirituality to Jamaican music, accompanying the emergence of a new generation of cultural artists.
Xterminator does not rhyme with Sizzla, but it might as well. It is hard to think of the one without evoking the other. "Praise Ye Jah" (1997) remains a genuine masterpiece of this roots spiritual revival. And what to say of Luciano, whose melodies Fattis polished on the album "Where There is Life" in 1995 and then "Messenger" the following year. The Messenjah would leave the label, reproaching Fattis for concentrating solely on Sizzla's career. Among the label's other essentials, let us also mention Ini Kamoze, Cocoa Tea ("Israel's King") and the album "MLK Dub".
Fattis Burrell has just written some of the finest pages of reggae, but the turn of the millennium did not go well for the label. Ras Shiloh, Turbulence, Chezidek and Prince Malachi did not repeat the feats of their predecessors and Xterminator gradually lost its influence.
After this lean period, Xterminator was back in business in 2011. Releases that augured well for the future. We will never know whether Fattis would have helped relaunch roots and spirituality as he did twenty years ago. The top producer of the 90s has passed away.