Frisco Kid (musician)
Frisco Kid , aka Ancient Monarchy (* 1971 as Steve Webley Wray in Kingston , Jamaica ) is a Jamaican reggae - and dancehall - Deejay .
biography
Steve Wray was born in the Kingston West Kingston District and attended Kingston Secondary School. Wray dropped out of high school in 1989 . He has completed vocational training as a mechanic .
His first attempts at deejay began in high school. After the first unsuccessful years, Wray moved with his mother from Kingston to Portmore in the mid-1980s . Up to this point he had worked with various sound systems in the area. There was no recording studio in Portmore; Studio recordings were only possible in the capital Kingston at the time, so Wray continued to sing with various sound systems in his area.
Between 1986 and 1988 he met musicians like Brigadier Jerry, Michael Buckley and Carl Meeks through Deejay Froggy Dumpa, with whom he made his first recordings. After leaving school in 1989, he and his mother moved back to Tivoli Gardens, a neighborhood in West Kingston. Murder and violent crime were the order of the day in the slum area, which also affected his lyrics. In 1992 Wray decided to stop producing so-called gun lyrics. In the same year he got in contact with Mr. Wong, a well-known sponsor of young musicians in Jamaica and the organizer of the then very famous Back Line event, which took place every Wednesday evening at the Exodus Nuclear in Kingston. There Frisco Kid got regular appearances that helped him to make further acquaintances, among other things to the sponsor Vather Romey, who produced his first dubplate with him on the recommendation of Mr. Wong in the recording studio of the Killamanjaro sound system under the name Paro Kid.
From 1992 he regularly visited the recording studios in Kingston and met well-known deejays such as Baby Wayne, Captain Barkey, Wicker Man, Terro Fabulous and many more. Together they formed a kind of alliance of deejays and produced dubplates. Through these connections Wray met the musician Redman , who brokered him a record deal with Shocking Vibes. Wray recorded his first song as the Frisco Kid with the title Gal Can't Go Dance Again , which became known nationwide. The song Big Speetch , sung at the Pepper Seed Riddim in 1993 , gained worldwide recognition. In 1994 Spragga Benz took him on a tour. In 1995 he signed a contract with Shocking Vibes for his first own tour, where he performed in Japan, Europe, the United States and the Caribbean. After the tour his first album called Finaly was released on the Mad House Production label , which was distributed worldwide by VP Records . After the success of the album, he toured the world alone and with well-known artists such as Wayne Wonder , Baby Cham , Mr Easy, Lady Saw , Tanya Stephens , General Degree, Sugar Minott and many more.
In 2000 the Frisco Kid added "aka Ancient Monarchy" to his name, which means "also known as the Ancient Kingdom" and according to his own statement was made because of his closeness to the Rastafarian faith , his musical influences and his work. Connections to the Yudgement Yard and the high priests of the Bobo Ashanti led him to record songs like Lion Paw , Round Here , Mash up the Place or Fire Bun on the Military ; Songs that also became known in Europe. After many other concerts and worldwide tours, he has been spending a lot of time with his family since 2006.
Discography
Singles, Dubplates (selection)
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Albums
- 1998 - Finally - VP Records
Individual evidence
Web links
- Frisco Kid on My Space
- Frisco Kid at Discogs (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Frisco Kid |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Wray, Steve Webley (real name); Frisco Kid aka Ancient Monarchy |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Jamaican dancehall musician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1971 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Kingston (Jamaica) , Jamaica |