Elephant Man

With his gruff-throated delivery and energetic machismo, Elephant Man became Jamaica's biggest dancehall star and worked with the cream of America's pop and hip hop world. Born O'Neil Bryan, his stage name developed from childhood when his nickname was Dumbo (because of his big ears), and he started out performing in his teens with the Scare Dem Crew, led by MC Bounty Killer. Inspired by reggae's party rhythms and hip hop's bristling attitude, his early albums Comin' 4 U (2000) and Log On (2002) became big hits across the Caribbean, but he was criticised and had concerts cancelled in Britain and Canada because of his rhymes about violence against gay people. It didn't affect his growing popularity in the US though, and he appeared on remixes for Janet Jackson, Will Smith and Mariah Carey and won a Source Award for album Good 2 Go (2004) and singles Signal Di Plane and Pon di River. Signed to Puff Daddy's label Bad Boy Records, Rihanna, Chris Brown, Busta Rhymes and Shaggy all contributed to Let's Get Physical (2008) and he scored a small US hit with Five-O, featuring Wyclef Jean. Despite being seen as a controversial figure to many, his party anthems act as a bridge between Jamaica's reggae scene and America's rap culture and made it onto the biggest stage in the world when Usain Bolt celebrated his 200 metres victory at the 2008 Olympics by doing Elephant Man's The Gully Creeper dance.

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