they lent their riddim to some of bob dylan's work in the 80's and in return let him join in on one of their taxi jam session albums.

"Born under punches" and most of remain in light was tracked at Compass Point, but Sly & Robbie didn't work on it. Eno produced.

Your article is off the mark in several ways. First, Sly and Robbie were children the ska days. The original ska era ended around 1967 when Jamaican music morphed into rocksteady, the direct predecessor of reggae. The fact that you apparently have never heard of rocksteady music makes me doubt your cred as a critic of Jamaican music.

The riddim twins did not really start working steadily in the studios until the mid 1970s, long after the first roots reggae was recorded in the late 60s. It wasn't like they invented any particular genre of music, although they did contribute mightily to the sound, especially in the late 70s and into the 1990s.

I don't quite understand your cheap shot at Clinton Fearron -- he has every right to dislike non-melodic and mechanical dancehall music which has been pervasive in Jamaica for the last couple of decades. Unlike Mr. Fearron, Sly & Robbie are musicians, not songwriters, they contribute to the form but do not create the content. Sly is far from the first to use a drum machine in Jamaica, although he may have advanced it... Sly & Robbie have set trends in music but they have just as often followed them.