I first became aware of King General around 1996 when Dougie played me a tune he’d done with him called Put Down The Gun. The original version was recorded on Dougie’s first and quite basic 4 track desk, the same one used for the first few Conscious Sounds releases. The production quality was raw but the riddim was wicked and I loved the vocal. I got the tune cut onto dubplate and as I loved the riddim so much I also had it voiced by Naph-Tali as a special for the sound.
At that time Conscious Sounds was situated in the attic of Dougie’s house and that’s where I first met King General when he called in one day during one of my sessions. I was surprised to discover he was white because at that time you could count the number of white reggae artists on one hand – apart from Martin Campbell there weren't many others. We met a few more times and then when the studio moved to Dalston we met up again one day. Nothing had been arranged but we got talking that day and I told him how much I loved Put Down The Gun. Dougie had no plans to release it so I suggested rebuilding the riddim to voice again for release on my label. General was into the idea so we rebuilt the riddim there and then. The original had been in a steppers style and I decided to keep the same chords and bassline but change the drum pattern to a one drop instead. It didn’t take long to do and General went straight into the voicing booth to lay down the vocal. We did some quick mixes that day and then the finished ones on a different day.
The tune was released as a seven inch in 1998. King General went on to achieve cult status with The Bush Chemists, making a number of singles and the Money Run Tings album. Everyone loved his music but outside of the few who worked with him, nobody even knew what he looked like which added to the mystery. He never made any public appearances back then and he later disappeared from the scene for a long time before coming back around 10 years later. Put Down The Gun is now a collectors item and is only available as a download.

Recorded at Conscious Sounds, produced by Jah Warrior. Released on 7 inch in 1998