Yellowman

During his peak in the ’80s, Jamaican dancehall star Yellowman influenced a new generation of artists and upended social mores in the process with a toasting style full of nimble rhymes and raunchy boasts. Yellowman was born Winston Foster in the town of Negril in 1956; abandoned as a baby, he grew up in a Catholic orphanage in Kingston and faced social stigma because he was albino. But he found a crucial outlet in the music of early toasting deejays like U-Roy, and as he cultivated his own skills on the mic, he distinguished himself by performing in a yellow suit and cracking jokes about his bedroom prowess—moves that helped him win the popular Tastee Talent Contest in the late ’70s and land a deal with Columbia Records not long after. In 1983, the immensely catchy single “Zungguzungguguzungguzeng” became a global hit—leading to later samplings and remakes. Audiences were scandalised by other, anatomically inclined tunes like 1982’s “Mad Over Me”, but controversy only seemed to fuel his popularity. Still, Yellowman veered toward socially conscious lyrics in the ’90s after facing multiple bouts with cancer, and he maintained a more thoughtful approach on his 2019 album No More War.