Beenie Man was born on August 22, 1973 in Kingston, Jamaica. Beenie Man is his stage name. His real name is Anthony Moses Davis. He is a popular reggae entertainer and a well established dancehall artist.
From his childhood he was interested and involved in the music industry. He won the Tastee Talent contest in 1980. At the age of eight, he recorded a single, "Too Fancy", with record producer "Junjo" Lawes in the year 1981. By 1983, Beenie Man was recording with heavyweight DJs, such as Dillinger and Fathead and released his debut album "The Invincible Beenie Man: The Ten Year Old DJ Wonder" and the single "Over the Sea". Beenie Man continued performing and honed his craft beside the then dominant dancehall figures including Ninjaman, Admiral Bailey and Shabba Ranks. He found his artistic home at the Shocking Vibes studio where he continued to record singles with only moderate success towards the end of the decade.
Beenie Man's first real break into the United States came in 1997. He heard an instrumental rhythm by an unknown producer named Jeremy Harding, and demanded to add his voice to the rhythm. So this was the birth of his first international hit; he recorded "Who Am I" and the single quickly went Gold. It opened the dooors for the world to see a new reggae star in the pages of Newsweek and other major media outlets.
Beenie Man signed to Virgin Records in 1998 to release albums in the United States. In 2000, Beenie Man released "Art & Life", which featured Arturo Sandoval and Wyclef Jean, for which he received a Grammy award for Best Reggae Album.
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"Progress" by
Beenie Man
foundations
of reggae music
Much of this reggae "history" is included in the
notes for Reggae Music: The Golden Era 1960-1975 and to
today's reggae music.
THE GOLDEN ERA
Alongside the tiny manufacturing industry, there were
open-air deejays known as sound systems. A cliff
face of speaker boxes, each big enough to raise a family
in, powered by amplification of intercontinental capability."
There was life-and-death competition among the system operators
to
source the rarest American R&B and the best technology.
