Dancehall deejays

Mark Anthony Myrie, born 15 July 1973, took the stage name Buju from a childhood nickname and Banton from the deejay tradition of the title. Accounts place his birth in the Salt Lane area of Kingston, the youngest of a large family, and his schooling at Denham Town High — the two are frequently conflated into a single claim about where he is from, and are kept separate here. He released his first single, "The Rule", in 1987 at fourteen, and by the early 1990s was among the most commercially dominant deejays in Jamaica. The turn came with 'Til Shiloh in 1995, his fourth album, which set aside the slack and gun material for songs shaped by his adoption of Rastafari and is generally treated as one of reggae's defining albums. He records for his own Gargamel Music. Rasta Got Soul brought a Grammy nomination in 2009 and Before the Dawn won Best Reggae Album in 2011, awarded while he was in United States custody; that case, and his release in December 2018, are catalogued separately in this archive as public record.

Clifton George Bailey III, born at Islington in St Mary on 13 April 1967, was nicknamed after a St Mary lawyer the family knew: the name stuck and the lawyer is forgotten. He came up as a slack deejay, on "Bumbo Red", "Number One on the Look Good Chart" and "Lotion Man", then "Alms House" in 1992 and "Tour", which brought a Def Jam deal and put him briefly inside American rap's machinery. The 1995 single "Wings of the Morning" carried a Method Man feature on its Dynamik Duo Mix, and it is the clearest case of that traffic running the other way, an American rapper guesting on a Jamaican record. From about 1993 the lyrics turned conscious, and the turn was complete enough that the earlier catalogue now reads as a different artist. Prophecy (1995), I-Testament (1997) and More Fire (2000) made him, with Sizzla and Luciano, one of the three voices of the culture wave. He prefers King Shango, from the Yoruba, and describes the fire he calls for as purification rather than violence, a reading contested abroad, where anti-gay interpretations of his lyrics cancelled shows in Switzerland in 2008 and the United States in 2010. He has stayed a working artist rather than a heritage act. Since 1998 he has staged A St Mary Mi Come From, an annual benefit concert in the parish he is named for, and the Jamaica Reggae Industry Association recognised him for it as a promoter in 2019. Heights of Fire, released on Evidence Music in June 2026 with Damian and Stephen Marley among the guests, was his first full album in roughly fifteen years. A Canadian date booked around it, which would have been his first appearance there in sixteen years, was postponed at the end of June when the festival carrying it moved to a larger venue.

Conscious sing-jay deejay (Patrick Barrett, b. 1962) whose 'Fresh Vegetable' and 'Sweet Jamaica' led the early-1990s cultural revival; founder of the Flames Productions label and the Rebel Salute festival, he is a respected foundation-to-ragga deejay.

Anthony B (born Keith Anthony Blair, 1976) is a Jamaican Rastafarian deejay who emerged in the mid-1990s conscious-reggae wave from rural Trelawny. Linking with producer Richard "Bello" Bell at Star Trail Records, he became known for militant, socially critical lyrics, most notably the 1996 single "Fire Pon Rome," which was banned from Jamaican radio for targeting the Vatican. He has since maintained a long international touring career.

Anthony Red Rose is a Jamaican dancehall singer-deejay whose 1985 tune 'Tempo', recorded in one take after King Tubby overheard him rehearsing it and produced by King Jammy, gave its name to the widely versioned Tempo riddim and became a foundation record of the Waterhouse digital-dancehall style. He later co-founded the production label How Yu Fi Say Dat with fellow deejay Anthony Malvo.

Dancehall deejay whose gruff mid-1990s run peaked with "Action" (1994), the duet with Nadine Sutherland that became one of the decade's defining combination records and a US crossover hit. Born Cecil Campbell on 20 December 1974, he trained in electrical engineering before turning to music, recording early singles including "Gwaney Gwaney" and "Dorothy." His Patrick Roberts/Donovan Germain-produced debut album Gwaney Gwaney (1992) was followed by Dave Kelly's Yaga Yaga (1994), which carried "Action" — its US chart run (No. 43) and a spot on Vibe's fifty greatest duets list made it one of the decade's defining combination records.

Jamaican deejay who broke through in the mid-1990s with "Sound Boy Killing" and "First Position," a hard-voiced clash-era chatter and Sting-stage regular.

Deejay of 1990s dancehall with a clean, conversational flow and a comic streak — "Traffic Blocking" among the sides that kept him on rotation through the decade's juggling era, often in combination with the Main Street camp's hitmakers.

General Levy (Paul Scott Levy, born 28 April 1971) is a British ragga deejay of Trinidadian descent, raised in Harlesden and Wembley, who collected dancehall tapes from age 10 and formed his own sound system, Third Dimension, as a teenager before his 1994 collaboration with M-Beat, 'Incredible', became the first jungle track to reach the UK Top 10.

Jamaican dancehall deejay Amos Edwards, one of the most popular fast-chat voices of the late 1980s. He rose on Maurice Johnson's Black Scorpio sound and later worked with King Stur-Gav, delivering hits in a rapid, multi-voiced style.