Story by Nicole ‘Nikki Z’ Duhaney
To the average person singing publicly about being an illegal alien would seem a bit risqué, especially for a musician. But in the year 1992 a music history changing ‘earthling’ did just that taking a play off English rock band ‘Sting’s hit song “Englishman In New York”. See me walking down 5th avenue with my hat leaned to the side’…. you could almost see the imagery as he sang the lyrics. Especially if you were a Jamaican in New York you knew the difference, the energy, the style we brought to the popular US State.
It amazes me how this legendary talent isn’t lauded over and studied across Universities in the Caribbean and worldwide. His career did not begin in Jamaica but instead honing his craft with some of the biggest sound systems in the East Coast most notably Downbeat The Ruler. But it was the year 1986 that he took his remarkable skills from stage show to recording booth with a well know track called “Who The Cap Fits”
Shinehead clawed and crawled into the music industry to become one of its biggest legends
as well as making it easier for new artists to get through the ‘Hip Hop’ collaborative door. While some like to downplay or define him or his character by allegied drug use, NOT ONE SOUL can deny his talent, his contribution, his love for humanity.
If you ask Shinehead his love for music began in St Thomas in the late 60’s when at the age of 7 he told me he walked to a dance with other kids from the community and remembers hearing 54-46 by the late great Toots. According to the DJ he fell asleep on a subwoofer at the dance and that small action to him fused him to the music and to the sound system culture. Fast Forward a few years Shinehead has discovered a wide palate for music and he specifically highlights the first time seeing and hearing the Jackson 5. Shinehead says ‘it was as if the album cover called me to say ‘Join Us’”.
His love of the Jackson 5 was so influential it inspired his first ever performance in the parish of St Thomas where he performed “Give Me one More Chance’ by the Jackson 5. Shinehead said it was in that moment he realized he had a gift, a talent that no one can take from him. Even after catching the music bug Shinehead never left his studies, constantly reading throughout his school years at
St Catherine High. Elevating his mind, vocabulary and lyrical ability.
1976 His migrated to Bronx and witnessed Kool Here playing hip hop music in the park, it was there he got the spark to fuse his love for his Jamaican culture with the fast pace energy of the urban culture. Shinehead said ‘at the time I didn’t know I was fusing both worlds, I was just doing what came naturally’… Bizzy Bee Starsky , Treacherous Three, Fantastic Romantic 5, Grandmaster Flash, Furious Five, Grand Wizard Thoerdore just a few of the name Shinehead pays homage to for the energy of that time.