Natty U

Natty U , actually Ulrich Schmidt-Salm (born February 20, 1956 in Dortmund , † March 25, 2005 in Essen ) was a German reggae singer and music producer . In the 1980s he was one of the most successful German reggae musicians and one of the few whose music was also heard in Jamaica . Natty U was the first known white reggae singer in Germany.

music

In the 1980s Uli Schmidt-Salm left the punk band The Neat , in which he had played until then, to make reggae music under the name Natty U. He had his first publication in 1987: 1,000 copies of the EP Mr Reagan were sold, although the record was hardly advertised and not played on the radio. Natty Us's first full-length album was Prejudice , which came out in 1988 and also sold about 1,000 copies. Natty U gained notoriety through many live performances.

In 1990 the second album Fool For Your Love was released , which was also played on the radio in Jamaica. 1991 Natty U appears in Jamaica and is compared there with UB40 .

Natty U had his greatest success in 1992 with a cover version of The Cures Hit Boys Don't Cry . In 1993 the album Flash Up Unu Lighter was released . The single Kuff - inna de bad boy face , taken from this album, is hardly played on the radio in Germany because of the lyrics.

The next release by Natty U was a long time coming: he had an operation in 1994 and took a long time to recover. Over the next few years he wrote film music and only released an album again in 1998: he recorded the dub album The Return of the Whitey Dons together with Orange and also produced it himself. It was released on Natty Us's own label Whaccy Baccy Records . In the following years Natty U produced for various musicians and performed with several sound systems . Natty U gave his last concert with Sasha in September 2004 . In September 2004 Natty was a guest at eldoradio * in Dortmund (Doctor Jones Reggae Empire) and presented his new reggae and dancehall productions there.

On March 25, 2005, Natty U died of cancer in a clinic in Essen. At his request, his ashes were given to the sea off Jamaica. This was financed by a "farewell concert" on April 14, 2005 in Dortmund, where The Neat, Orange, Ede Whiteman and Sasha performed, among others .

Web links

https://ausloeserfreude.blogspot.com/2012/04/nutty-u.html