Jamaican Dancehall artist Shabba Ranks (Rexton Rawlston Fernando Gordon) was born in Sturge Town in the parish of St. Anne. In pursuit of better opportunities, his parents moved and ultimately settled in the capital city of Kingston when he was eight years old.
Shabba developed a passion for music at a young age and worked on his craft as much as he could. By the time he was in his early teens, he would have a defining experience that would change his life.
His brother in law invited him to work as a bottle collector during an event featuring new artist Josey Wales. Instead of doing his job, Shabba found himself glued to the stage watching Josey perform, he was overtaken by the magic of music.
Soon Shabba would devote himself entirely to the pursuit of his own career in music. As it turned out, he would have all the time in the world, after he got kicked out of his high school.
Shabba, though, had a different mentality than a lot of his friends, and other people could see it as well, including Josey Wales, Josey came across Shabba one day, hanging out with his friends and pulled him aside and gave him some words of wisdom about the company that was keeping.
He also invited Shabba to come to the recording studio that he was going to the following day. At that point, Shabba had only ever seen the inside of a studio once. He was so excited about the experience. He couldn’t sleep that night, the studio ended up being one of the biggest recording studios in the country at the time.
Josey vouched for Shabba’s talent to none other than super producer King Jammie. Jammie decided to take a chance on Shabba and offered the 16 year old Shabba a job as a DJ.
His original stage name was Co-Pilot and it was under this name that he cut his first single, Heat under suffers feet. In 1985 soon after he changed his name to Shabba Ranks.
Shabba’s debut album, Rapping with the ladies, was released in 1988 on a small independent label out of Queens, New York. He released several more albums on the same label over the next few years that many people outside of the Caribbean may not know very well.
But one song in particular called Dem Bow, off his second album, titled Just Reality would provide the foundation to a future popular music style. Flowing suits, manicured eyebrows and gold jewelry made him stand out from a visual angle, but it was his deep vocals alongside some trendy rhythms and catchy hooks that led to a major label deal in the US with Epic Records.
His first project for his new label would be the 1990 one, As raw as ever. It was his first album to be well received by critics as well as the public and contain the hit singles trailer load of girls and household featuring British Jamaican reggae artists, Maxi Priest.
Shaba was also rewarded with his first Grammy for Best reggae album.
The very next year, Shabba would do it all again, drop a very successful album and have it win him another Grammy. The 1990 two’s extra naked also contain the popular songs tingling, slow and se_xy featuring American r&b singer Johnny Gill and the reggae fusion smash Mr. Lover Man. This one in particular would go on to become his biggest hit outside of Jamaica. Fans of Shabba from the beginning of his career will recognize the song from his first album it was a recut from a song initially released as champion lover on British Guyanese artists Deborah Glasgow’s debut album.
Sadly Deborah passed away at the age of 29. After a battle with lymphoma, so Shabba decided to re record the tune, this time with Chevelle Franklin as the featured singer as high as shadow was riding in his career that year.
Shabba would experience a major low right at the end. In December he did an interview that many would attribute to derailing his career and changing Dancehall music.
During an appearance on a British TV network channel for a music show, the word, he was asked to give his thoughts on the subject of the hit song boom bye bye by fellow Jamaican Dancehall artists, Buju Banton.
The song stirred up a lot of controversy and was already labeled as a hate song by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation or GLAM. Shabba co-signed Buju’s sentiments in the song saying if someone forfeits the Word of God, they deserve crucifixion.
He added that he lived by the concept of the good book and it states that man should multiply and that multiplication is done by a male and a female. He was condemned for his comments by presenter Mark Omar. Those comments caused outrage around the world and the Fallout was swift and brutal.
He was dropped from a Bobby Brown tour in the UK the following year, he was forced to pull out of the festival after press reports were released of police labeling him a troublemaker.
Several months later. Shabba released the following statement.
In retrospect, I now realize that the comments were a mistake because they advocated violence towards gay men and lesbians. I regret having made such statements. I do not approve of any act of violence against gay men and lesbians or any other human beings. Gay bashing is wrong.
Unfortunately, the fallout wasn’t just centered around Shabba, the entire genre of Dancehall music got caught up too. Many artists were having their shows cancelled and getting dropped from their labels, visas and work permits were also cancelled or not granted at all.
Promoters weren’t interested in working with certain artists, unless there was a signed agreement in place barring them from performing certain songs.
Not surprisingly, Shabba’s next couple of albums only received average reviews, and the following year Shabba was dropped from his label.
Shabba quit music.
He spent his time focused on his family and eventually moved from Jamaica to the US.
Shabba felt ready to take on the music world again after his children were much older.
He released a comeback single of sorts with the track none of them in April 2011 Shabba and his wife Michelle, who he married in 1992. Share two sons and continue to reside in New York City.
Please watch the video above this post for more details.
