Jerry Dammers may have said "we aim to please with tributes to versions of songs by The Skatalites, Prince Buster, The Maytals and the Harry J All Stars" but at the time there were those critics who thought that 2 Tone lacked imagination because of the labels high percentage of cover versions.

Others may agree with Dammers and say that these covers are merely the bands playing homage to those who inspired them but there is no escaping the fact that a large number of covers and/or interpretations of other artist's material appeared on the label.