4. Style Scott
As the drummer of the Roots Radics, arguably Jamaica’s most powerful and revered studio session band, Lincoln “Style” Scott brought his disciplined, precise style of playing to the rockers and rub-a-dub sound of early ’80s Channel One riddims as well as for artists like Gregory Isaacs, Israel Vibration, Sugar Minott, Bunny Wailer and Barrington Levy. The spacious drumbeat he’s known for left plenty of room for Flabba Holt’s heavy basslines and dub effects and while it might seem to be a simple kick, snare, kick, snare pattern, there’s pretty much no drummer who can play it as perfectly and with the right feel as Scott — with the possible exception of a few others on this very list.