what exactly is rocksteady? i have heard it and shit and my favorite band has even customized it to themselves dubbing it the "crackrock steady" so what is exactly is all this whowhat?

Rocksteady is like the transitional style between fast, upbeat ska, and subdued early reggae. Alot of ska musicians went on to make rocksteady music. Sounds alot like ska to me.
Dreader than Dread - Honey Boy Martin
Rock Steady - Alton Ellis and the Flames

There is fast rocksteady and slow rocksteady as well. Roland Alphonso discussed this and pointed out that there was fast ska and slow ska as well as fast & slow rocksteady. The framework or style the musicians were working with is what really changed. Kind of beside the point but interesting....Leonard Dillon commented that Train To Skaville was "part-way ska rock steady"/"Ska is not a matter of speed...it's a matter of arrangement"



DC

Yeah, its quite a comprehensive genre, but must people ive talked to see it as the transitional phase from ska to reggae, which is a shame. They say alot of the time that Liquidator and Return Of Django were more "proto-reggae" than ska, they sound like alot of the early "skinhead" reggae.