Ghetto Priest has been captivating audience with his powerful vocals and magnetic stage presence over the past three decades. A long-time member of the On-U Sound family, Ghetto Priest was a former rudeboy and Arsenal football hooligan who was incarcerated briefly after stepping on to the wrong side of the tracks. Turning to Rastafarianism, he began writing lyrics, and he honed his vocal skills and artistic persona around the sound system culture of the early 80s, before becoming part of Sherwood’s African Head Charge collective and started MC-ing on the producer’s live/DJ sets. As one of the more flamboyant and creative performers to emerge from the scene, he was invited by Asian Dub Foundation to take on the vocals for the opening track of their ‘Enemy of the Enemy’ album released in 2003 along with lead vocals on the follow-up album, ‘Tank’. His On-U Sound debut came a year later, the critically acclaimed album ‘Vulture Culture’, produced by Adrian Sherwood and has been the frontman of Asian Dub Foundation ever since. He went on to record under his own name for a number of other labels including Reggae On Top and Conscious Sounds. More or lesser known artists to have flavoured his guest vocals include The Underwolves, Sinead O’Connor, Groove Armada, James Hardway (aka David Harrow) and Little Axe. In 2011, Ghetto Priest joined forces with Lucid Mover in a project called Screaming Soul. This resulted in the album ‘Ghost Inna Shell’ and in 2012, an Adrian Sherwood and Nick Coplowe (aka Mutant Hi-Fi)-remixed companion, ‘Ghost Inna Dub’. In 2016, he released the single ‘Life Ain’t Easy’ based on Dennis Brown’s ‘Easy, Take It Easy’, via Ramrock Records, and his On-U Sound/Sherwood Production/Ramrock Records release ‘Every Man’ LP was voted ‘Best Reggae LP’ in Wire Magazine’s ‘Best of 2017’
