The continent of Europe has begun to respond to the soulful stylings of breakout reggae-dancehall artiste Bingi Banga.
“The music fans in Europe really love my delivery, my flow and the content of my music. My management is putting in the work to raise my local profile as well with more social media, and the street teams are hitting the streets with t-shirts and CDs,” the artiste whose real name is Shawn Taylor, said.
He grew up in the rough neighbourhood of Jones Avenue, Spanish Town, St. Catherine where he attended Ensom City All Age. Financial challenges forced him to drop out of school at the age of 15 where he worked odd jobs and ‘hustled’ to make ends meet. He began to dabble in music, recording his first song several years ago, a combination song with artitse Divino, under the monicker, Malishous Vhyrus.
He continued to hone his craft, spending hours in the studio, and using social media to promote his song. He began to work closely with JMTechnology, recording the popular ‘Sure’ which won him street credibility. Bingi Banga performed on community stage shows in Spanish Town area building his reputation one stage show at a time.
A few years later, he met Danish producer Pharfar of the well-regarded international reggae label, Food Palace Music.
“Pharfar liked my sound and he wanted to do a song, because he felt that I had an international flavour,” he said.
The musical chemistry was so great that Bingi Banga recorded three songs with the Danish label, namely, the pop-influenced ‘Miss World (Who’s That Girl?)’ , the fast-paced, soda-flavoured ‘Touch Up Yu Feelings’ and ‘Mi Like You”.
Pharfar encouraged him to change his name to Bingi Banga after a slang recorded in the intro of one of his songs took off in the streets and people would shout ‘bang dem!’ whenever they saw him in the streets.
“The slang just connect so mi just work with it and change my name. The songs dem a work in, the most popular one so far is ‘Miss World’ because it is playing on the radio,” he said.
Established producers have begun to send beats his way, and he has recorded new singles such as ‘Boring’ for Jones Avenue Productions, Too Much’ for Mineral Boss Records, and a pair of singles, ‘Cowskin Desert’ and ‘Sure’ for label JM Technology. He is also doing other singles with Jones Avenue Productions
“Right now, we are about to shoot a few videos for the songs and take the promotion to the streets,” he said.
