Shabba Ranks
Shabba Ranks ( born January 17, 1966 in Sturgetown, Jamaica; bourgeois: Rexton Rawlston Fernando Gordon) is a Jamaican dancehall deejay. He was the first dancehall artist to win a Grammy. Shabba Ranks is one of the world's most famous musicians of Jamaica.
Life
Shabba Ranks grew up in Trench Town, where he began the age of twelve, to DJing the Roots Melody sound system. There he took his first single, Heat Under Sufferer 's Feet, under the name of Co - pilot on, attention was drawn to him by Josey Wales. He made known Shabba Ranks with King Jammy, who produced a couple of singles of Shabba Ranks. Later Shabba switched to digital label B producer Bobby Digital. During his time at Digital B he had, inter alia, by Scritti Politti cooperation with initial success in the UK. In 1991, he signed with Epic Records and released the album As Raw As Ever, the 1992 Grammy winning best reggae recording. In the same year he also published the song Dem Bow ( album Just Reality), whose rhythm influenced the reggaeton movement strong.
Another Grammy he won in 1993 with his second album X -Tra Naked. Also, two collections of hits from his Jamaican time went into the charts. Although this third album, A Mi Shabba included several successful tunes like Shine Eye Gal, however, fell short of expectations. This led in 1996 to the end of cooperation with Epic. Since then, Shabba Ranks took a few songs for Jamaican producers, especially King Jammy on.
In his career, Shabba Ranks has also collaborated among others with Maxi Priest, Johnny Gill, Chuck Berry, Eddie Murphy, KRS -One, Busta Rhymes, P. Diddy, Mykal Rose and Cocoa Tea.
Controversy over homophobia
Like many other dancehall artist Shabba Ranks also came because of homophobic lyrics, so-called Battyman -Tunes, and views in the criticism. In 1992, he called in a British television program the crucifixion of homosexuals. These statements he later took back pressure on his label, but this led to loss of popularity in Jamaica. They accused him of inconsistency there before.