Foul Play is a 1981 album by reggae

Reggae

Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...

 singer Dennis Brown

Dennis Brown

Dennis Emmanuel Brown was a Jamaican reggae singer. During his prolific career, which began in the late 1960s when he was aged eleven, he recorded more than 75 albums and was one of the major stars of lovers rock, a sub-genre of reggae...

, the first of three albums to be released as part of his international record deal with A&M

A&M Records

A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that operates under the mantle of its Interscope-Geffen-A&M division.-Beginnings:...

. The album features two tracks which have been described as "two of the greatest roots

Roots reggae

Roots reggae is a subgenre of reggae that deals with the everyday lives and aspirations of the artists concerned, including the spiritual side of Rastafari and with the honoring of God, called Jah by rastafarians. It also is identified with the life of the ghetto sufferer, and the rural poor...

 cuts in major label history", in "The Existence of Jah" and "The World is Troubled". The album was reissued on the Joe Gibbs label as a double-set with its follow-up, Love Has Found Its Way, and with both of the other A&M albums on the double-CD set The Complete A&M Years. The album mixed roots reggae tracks and sociopolitical themes with love songs such as "If I Had The World", "Your Man", and a new version of one of his early hits, "If I Follow My Heart". Klive Walker, in his book Dubwise: Reasoning from the Reggae Underground suggested that the lyric of "If I Had the World" ("You drive away the pains from me, sometimes you're like cocaine, baby") suggests that Brown was already using cocaine

Cocaine

Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...

 at the time that the album was recorded.

Track listing

1. "On The Rocks"
2. "The Existence of Jah"
3. "Come On Baby"
4. "The World is Troubled"
5. "I Need Your Love"
6. "Foul Play"
7. "Your Man"
8. "If I Had the World"
9. "If I Follow My Heart"
10. "The Cheater"

Personnel

• Dennis Brown - vocals
• Willie Lindo - lead guitar
• Noel Bailey - rhythm guitar
• Lloyd Parks
  Lloyd Parks
  Lloyd Parks is a reggae vocalist and bass player.-Biography:Parks' interest in music was fuelled by his uncle Dourie Bryan, who played in a calypso band, and Parks became the band's singer...
  
  , Robbie Shakespeare - bass
• Clive Hunt
  Clive Hunt
  Clive Hunt is a Jamaican reggae multi-instrumentist, arranger, composer and producer.-Biography:...
  
  , Frankie "Bubbler" Waul, Robbie Lyn - keyboards
• Sly Dunbar
  Sly Dunbar
  Lowell "Sly" Fillmore Dunbar is a drummer.-Biography:Dunbar, whose nickname was reportedly given for his passion for Sly & the Family Stone, launched his musical career while still in his adolescence, playing with a local group, The Yardbrooms, at the age of fifteen...
  
  , Devon Richardson - drums
• Dean Fraser
  Dean Fraser
  Dean Fraser is a Jamaican saxophonist who has contributed to hundreds of reggae recordings since the mid-1970s. He was awarded the Musgrave Medal by the Jamaican government in 1993 in recognition of his services to music.-Biography:Fraser started to play the clarinet at the age of 12...
  
  , Ronald "Nambo" Robinson, David Madden - horns
• Ruddy Thomas, Uziah "Sticky" Thompson - percussion
• The Professionals - background vocals
• Errol Thompson - engineer