Yellowman

Under the name Yellowman, Winston Foster, born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1956, established himself in the late 1970s on the sound system circuit after having grown up in part at the Alpha Boys School. A deejay of reggae and dancehall, Yellowman developed a direct, rhythmic and often raw style, set over riddims inherited from roots reggae but already leaning toward the dancehall aesthetic of the 1980s. He was brought to prominence by the Tastee Talent contest, which he won in 1979 after first appearing in the final in 1978, and he quickly made himself heard with Aces International and in recordings produced by Henry “Junjo” Lawes. His most productive period came in the early to mid-1980s with a series of records such as Mister Yellowman (1982), Zungguzungguguzungguzeng (1983) and King Yellowman (1984), as well as several live and studio collaborations with Fathead. Yellowman then embarked on a long career marked by a return to the stage after surgeries related to a cancer diagnosed in 1982, and by an evolution toward sometimes more spiritual or socially conscious lyrics on Prayer (1994) and Freedom of Speech (1997). Over the decades he continued to record, to tour with his Sagittarius Band and to move between dancehall, digital reggae and adapted covers suited to his singular phrasing, up to New York in 2003 and No More War in 2019.