Barrington Levy
(born 30 April 1964, Clarendon, Jamaica) is a reggae and dancehall recording artist.
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BARRINGTON LEVY TICKETS
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Career
In 1976, Levy formed a
band with his
cousin, Everton Dacres, called the Mighty Multitude; the pair released "My Black Girl" in 1977. Levy established his
solo career the next year with "A Long Time Since We Don't Have No Love"; though the
single was a failure, the fourteen year old was a popular performer at Jamaican dancehalls. Soon, Levy met
Junjo Lawes and Hyman Wright, both
record producers, and
recorded several singles with the
Roots Radics, including "Al Yah We Deh", "Looking My Love", "Englishman", "Wedding Ring Aside" and "Collie Weed", all of which became
hits and established Levy's career. Levy's next few singles were similarly successful, including "Shine Eye Girl", "Wicked Intention", "Jumpy Girl", "Skylarking" (by
Horace Andy), "Disco Music", "Reggae Music", "Never Tear My Love Apart", "Jah", "You Made Me So Happy" and "When You're Young and in Love". Levy then recorded several duets with
Toyan,
Jah Thomas and
Trinity, and appeared at
Reggae Sunsplash in 1980 and 1981. Although
albums were not terribly important in Jamaica at the time, Levy released four
albums before 1980: Shaolin Temple,
Bounty Hunter
,
Shine Eye Gal
(
United Kingdom) and
Englishman
[1], a
critically acclaimed
record.
By the 1980s
Robin Hood
, Levy was one of the biggest Jamaican stars, and saw his international fame growing as well, especially in the
United Kingdom. Taking a break from albums, Levy then released a series of hit singles, including "Mary Long Tongue", "In the Dark", "Too Poor", "I Have a Problem", "Even Tide Fire a Disaster", "I'm Not in Love", "You Have It", "Love of Jah", "Under Mi Sensi", "Tomorrow Is Another Day", "Robberman", "Black Roses", "My Woman" and "Money Move". He returned to LPs with
Lifestyle
and
Money Move
, followed by a
British hit album called
Here I Come
; Levy received the Best Vocalist prize at the British Reggae Awards. The late 1980s saw Levy, now in his twenties, slow down his output, though he continued to perform and record until 1988. In 1993, Levy tried to break in the
United States with
Barrington
, but Levy and his label,
MCA Records, did not have a good relationship and he soon left.
In the 1990s, Levy continued to release periodic hits in Jamaica, and more rarely in the
UK. In 1998, he released
Living Dangerously
, which included a collaboration with one of Jamaica's most prolific
deejays,
Bounty Killer. The release was one of Levy's most successful singles since the start of the 1990s, and allowed him the opportunity to be identified by members of the younger generation of dancehall patrons. After the death of
Sublime's
Bradley Nowell in 1996, Barrington and the remaining members got together to record several songs and toured. Levy was only involved in a handful of shows, but his contribution to their 1999 release "Right Back", under the new moniker
Long Beach Dub All Stars was considered the best of the album. He was featured on a 1999
track by the
Rascalz titled "Top Of The World", also featuring
K-os. Levy also appeared on two singles by
rapper Shyne (notably Shyne's 2000 debut single, "Bad Boyz"), and on a track for
drum and bass artist
Aphrodite's 2000 album
Aftershock
.
In 2004, he contributed to a track on the album
White People
by
Handsome Boy Modeling School, a project by
Prince Paul and
Dan the Automator.He also did some collaborations with
Slightly Stoopid on their 2005 album
Closer To The Sun Most recently, Levy made a guest appearance on the single "No Fuss" by Red-1 of the
Rascalz, from his 2007 album
Beg For Nothing.
"Here I Come" is also featured in
Saints Row 2
and
Grand Theft Auto San Andreas
.
References
- [1]