Johnny Osbourne Releases New Album Universal Love Showcase
Few artists in Jamaican music history boast a body of work as revered and influential as Johnny Osbourne. In a career spanning almost six decades, Johnny has traversed the musical changes from reggae to dancehall with ease, earning him the title Dancehall Godfather, bestowed upon him by generations of musicologists and fans alike. Now in 2025, some of Johnny’s most evergreen songs have been reimagined thanks to Frenchie, the top-ranking producer and Maximum Sound label owner, who has assembled a team of world-class Jamaican musicians, including saxophonist Dean Fraser and mixing engineer Gregory Morris, to reinterpret these celebrated anthems. The resulting album, Universal Love Showcase, which features visionary artists as Tarrus Riley, Anthony B, Macka B, Alborosie, and Aza Lineage in combination with Johnny, was released digitally on the 29th of August 2025 on VP Records.
From the outset, it’s clear that Universal Love Showcase lives up to the promise of honouring Johnny Osbourne’s legacy whilst still pushing the music forward. “We Need Love”, the album opener, sets the tone, featuring modern-day Jamaican roots reggae ambassador Tarrus Riley, with a glorious update on Johnny’s 1979 Studio One classic, Truth & Rights, album-only track. Reflecting on his years with Greensleeves Records and famed producer Henry ‘Junjo’ Lawes, Johnny’s hit songs from the mid 80s “Ice Cream Love”, “Give A Little Love”, “No Lollipop No Sweet So” and “Never Stop Fighting” are recrafted for a new generation with featured vocals from an all-star lineup of Alborosie (“Don’t Need No Ice Cream Love”), Anthony B (“Give More Love”), Aza Lineage (“Sweet So”) and Macka B (“Cease Fire”) respectively.
Universal Love Showcase revives a format not often offered on modern albums, a very Jamaican invention – the ‘Showcase’ – a concept where each vocal track also has a corresponding dub included on the album. These stripped-back remixes, the original Jamaican ‘Drum & Bass’ pioneered by Dubmasters such as King Tubby and Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, when presented in this Showcase style is by far the best way to listen to dub, as you can hear how the engineer has broken the track down, distilling it down to its purest form. Carrying the torch for contemporary Jamaican dub is engineer Gregory Morris, whose previous work includes stellar dubs for Chronixx, Protoje, Beres Hammond, Lila Ike and many more, and on Universal Love Showcase, Morris dubs these reworkings of Johnny Osbourne’s classic recordings into outer space.
This collection of re-envisioned songs from one of Jamaica’s true musical icons was spearheaded by the well-reputed Maximum Sound producer Frenchie. Starting out as an apprentice engineer at Fashion’s A-Class Studio, a creative hub run by John MacGillivary and Chris Lane, who were also behind the influential Dub Vendor record shop, Frenchie soon became very well connected and recognised for his prodigious talents. Stepping out on his own and forming his Maximum Sound imprint in 1993, he has since gone on to produce an incredible discography, including works with Mr. Vegas, Sizzla, Luciano, Morgan Heritage, Vybz Kartel, Sean Paul, Bounty Killer, Capleton, and many more.