RedOne

A sweet, soulful reggae-pop singer who was part of Jamaica's music golden age, Boris Gardiner, aka RedOne, worked with some of the country's great producers and was later sampled on Kenderick Lamar's huge, Grammy-winning album 'To Catch a Butterfly'. Born in Rollingtown, Kingston, Jamaica, Gardiner was encouraged by his school teachers to sing as a way to improve his speech, and he started out performing in hotels to tourists with The Rhythm Aces in the early 1960s. He was forced to give up sport when he was diagnosed with a heart condition at age 17, and focused himself on music, playing bass in trombonist Carlos Malcolm's touring band. Becoming a session musician towards the end of the decade, Gardiner worked at the legendary Studio One with The Upsetters and played on classics like 'Police and Thieves' by Junior Murvin and 'I Feel Like Jumping' by Marcia Griffiths, before scoring his first international hit with single 'Elizabethan Reggae' in 1970. The instrumental track went on to reach number 14 in the UK Charts and album 'Reggae Happening' followed later in the year; but Gardiner returned home to play regular dates with his band The Broncos and work at Lee Scratch Perry's Black Ark studio. He made a steady living playing in hotels, until years later his laid-back, easy listening calypso-pop version of the country song 'I Wanna Wake Up With You' became a surprise hit and topped the UK Charts in 1986. Albums 'Everything to Me', 'Let's Take a Holiday' and 'Next to You' failed to make much impact, but in 2015 rap superstar Kendrick Lamar used a sample of Gardiner's obscure track 'Every N***** Is a Star' on album opener 'Wesley's Theory', and the smooth-crooning Jamaican found a new audience once again.

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