Beenie Man

Fun Facts: Beenie Man as been DJing since the age of six. By the time he was seven, he released his first single. At 10, he released his first long player, The Invincible Beenie Man.

Claim to Fame: Beenine Man is known as the King of the Dancehall. In 2000, he won a Grammy Award for the best reggae album of the year for “Art & Life.”

Anthony Moses Davis, better known by his stage name Beenie Man, is a Jamaican reggae entertainer.


Davis was born in the Waterhouse district of Kingston in 1973. He was involved in the music industry from a young age, starting toasting at the age of five, and was encouraged by his uncle Sydney Wolf, who played drums for Jimmy Cliff. He won the Tastee Talent contest in 1981, and Radio DJ Barry G introduced him to local sound system operators, who helped to establish the popularity of the young deejay, who became known as Beenie Man. while remaining at the top of the local charts. In 2000, Beenie Man released Art & Life, which featured Arturo Sandoval and Wyclef Jean, for which received a Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album.

In 2002, he had a sizeable hit with a duet with Janet Jackson called "Feel It Boy", but his biggest break in America came in early 2004 with the release of a remix of "Dude", featuring guest vocals by fellow Jamaican Ms. Thing, as well as rhymes by Shawnna. He thus cemented his fan base on both sides of the Atlantic.

He had hits in the UK in 1998 with "Who am I", in 2003 with "Street Life" and "Feel It Boy", a duet with Janet Jackson, and in 2004 with "Dude" and "King of the Dancehall". He was also a judge for the 6th annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers.

In April 2008 it was announced that Beenie Man was to co-write and star in the film Kingston.

In September 2008 Beenie Man was cleared of charges of tax evasion.

In April 2009, Beenie Man signed with Brookland Entertainment, a new record label formed by Eric Nicks and The Trackmasters, in preparation to release his new album, "The Legend Returns". The music video for the release of his new single ?Gimme Gimme? will be shot in Canada on April 18, 2009.


Beenie Man married Michelle Downer also known as D'Angel on 22 August 2006 in a lavish ceremony in Jamaica. The pair set up the MAFIA House Production Company together. In "Mi Nah Wallah", he says he would like to cut the throats of all gay men. In "Bad Man Chi Chi Man" the lyric instructs listeners to kill gay deejays, and in "Han Up Deh", the lyric suggests hanging lesbians with a long piece of rope. In 2004, with a concert in England being cancelled due to his lyrics after he was stopped by police at Heathrow Airport when entering the country, and amid fears of further cancellations, Beenie Man issued an apology through his record company: "While my lyrics are very personal, I do not write them with the intent of purposefully hurting or maligning others, and I offer my sincerest apologies to those who might have been offended, threatened or hurt by my songs." In 2006, he claimed that he was not homophobic, and claimed that his lyrics had been misconstrued, and that his references to homosexuals refer to the rape of boys by child molesters:

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