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ABOUT

BIOGRAPHY

Lushy Banton, the hot new dancehall lantern, is a firey, explosive outburst of high voltage dancehall energy.  Lushy’s smooth and supremely confident style of singing and rapping is as compelling on stage in live performances as it is in studio recordings, and in the past year, with numerous accolades under his belt, Lushy has quickly become one of the most important reggae artists to emerge from the United States market region.


Lushy is a musical gift to the world from the Grants Pen area of Kingston, Jamaica. His father was a busy promoter who staged numerous dances in the Grants Pen area so Lushy was thrown into the world of reggae entertainment from a very early age.  That early immersion had its advantages as he was able to meet many of the movers and shakers of the industry with an insider’s view of how things worked.  But despite those links, Lushy had to perfect his dancehall skills the hard, old fashioned way- by basically growing up in the dancehall, licking his wounds when they came along, and being forced to spit piercing, “kill-a-sound-boy” type lyrics at the drop of a hat. He understood from early in his teenage years how valuable it was to hold a microphone, and how talented one had to be to keep the microphone for an extended period of time.  And Lucky Lushy had the good fortune of juggling with some of Kingston’s finest sound systems, including the internationally acclaimed Stereo One that was headquartered in the Grants Pen area as well as the eternally famous Stone Love.


With Lushy’s steadfast passion for reggae music, it was inevitable that recording opportunities would come along, and come they did- from several angles.  From the Striker Lee Label came his first release, Gal Uno Sweet on the compilation album entitled Bam Bam.  Other labels like Stone Love and Adex Records jumped in on the Lushy Banton action too and more chart blazers followed, including Brown Eye Girl,  Oh Noo (with Wyclef Jean),  Mate Hear Say, Think Me Done, So Much Trouble and Exercise.


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But the single that was to change Lushy Banton’s fortune in the reggae arena was his Obama song that was dropped last year in the middle of a fervent presidential election campaign.  The single and its accompanying video clip were immediately embraced by radio, winning new votes for Barrack Obama and new fans for Lushy Banton. The song bulldozed Lushy to the front pages and center stage, and won him a 2009 nomination for Best Obama Song in the very prestigious IRAWMA (International Reggae & World Music Awards) in New York.


Lushy migrated to New Jersey in the United States in the early 2000s and new opportunities for touring and live performances unfolded across the country- numerous dates in the South and the Northeast, in the reggae hubs along the Californian West Coast and at mega events in the Midwest like the recently staged annual Festival of Life in Chicago. This year, Lushy is billed to perform at Irie Jamboree, North America’s premier reggae festival on Labor Day Weekend in Queens, New York alongside some of reggae’s hit machines like Sean Paul, Queen Ifrica, Freddy McGregor and Ken Boothe.


“I enjoy every moment of my reggae career”, Lushy commented. “This is what I have always wanted to do and I am continuously coming up with fresh ideas and creative plans that will enable me to be the best I can be”, he told New Yorkers on a recently broadcast interview with Caribbean Lifestyle/ CIN TV. Lushy Banton continues to expand his fan base daily and several new singles, more tour dates and an upcoming album for 2012 are all part of the upcoming plans for this astonishingly talented reggae artist.