Barrington Levy

With his warm, expressive voice and stylistic flexibility, Barrington Levy has adapted to dancehall's many evolutionary steps with ease. It helped that the Jamaican singer—born in 1964 in Clarendon—arrived on the scene just as reggae was heading in a heavier direction, with Levy first garnering attention in his mid-teens. After connecting with producer Henry "Junjo" Lawes and musicians Roots Radics, the young vocalist displayed his potential on hits like 1979’s "Collie Weed," a dancehall favorite built around a slinky groove and Levy's tenor. After Levy established his loverman prowess on albums such as Englishman (1979), his music took a rawer direction on "Under Mi Sensi," the 1984 track that helped establish him in the UK, where British dance-music producers would soon turn samples of Levy's vocals into an ubiquitous element of jungle and drum 'n' bass. His later shift into acoustic balladry and his adventurous collaborations with Handsome Boy Modeling School, Gorillaz, and Bounty Killer showed off Levy's knack for maintaining his effortless cool while extending his riddim mastery.