Lexxus

"I'm not a singer, I'm not a deejay, I'm an ENTERTAINER", asserts Lexxus, the resonant, rolling tongued dancehall sensation who is on a mission to take Jamaican music to the heights of international popularity. "This is Reggae we're talking about here and the music is not as big as it's suppose to be. Can you think of a Reggae artists they would put in Madison Square Garden or Yankee Stadium? I wanna be the one they put there and I know I've achieved what I want when I'm on stage and 200,000 people come to see!"

Mr Lex

Born Christopher Palmer and raised in the Mountain View area of Kingston, Lexxus has been performing, as he says, "since the day I was born". A former student at Kingston's (now defunct) Fox Drama School, Lexxus is an accomplished actor who has appeared in several plays and earned a Best Actor award in 1992. Lexxus also distinguished himself as one of the finest dancers in Jamaica when he joined the popular dance troupe Squad One. For the past seven years he has pursued an extremely promising career as a deejay (rapper) whose electrifying stage performances are enhanced by his vast experience in dance and theater.

Lexxus first displayed his deejaying skills in 1992 at the popular Sunday night dances held in Kingston's Harbor View area, featuring the Super Dee sound system. Representatives from the New York based label Natural Bridge Records heard Lexxus' impressive lyrical flow and brought him to Kingston's Mixing Lab recording studios where the 16 year old recorded his first single, "Own A Home", his tribute to women who aren't dependent on men for financial support. Subsequent single releases including "Unification" and "Ghetto Man Slam" yielded little fanfare for the aspiring deejay. He persevered and in 1997 is efforts were rewarded with three hit singles, "Runaway Train" (X-rated label), "Fade Away" (2-Hard Records) and "Boogie Woogie" for producers Steely & Clevie. Lexxus also received several concert bookings including an invitation to perform in New York City where he decided to live for an entire year.

Lexxus' popularity lagged in Jamaica due to the time he spent abroad, so he returned home in 1998 and re-established himself through a series of successful stage shows. The determined entertainer advantageously utilized his acting and dancing capabilities to support his microphone skills at Kingston's largest annual Dancehall concert, STING, in December 1998.

This event marked a turning point in Lexxus' career. "I wasn't so hot then, so coming back performing at STING wasn't really the glamorous thing it was supposed to be," confides Lexxus, "but I performed at 3 AM, after a lot of the artists got booed (and bottled); I did my thing and it was wicked. It was like they were waiting for me to come on and start the show. No one knew my music because all of it was new but because I projected my songs, danced and used up the stage, I was getting the crowd into my act."

Many of the unknown songs Lexxus performed at STING became Jamaican radio hits while his performance in August 1999 at Montego Bay's Reggae Sumfest Dancehall Night has amplified the Lexxus buzz to a near deafening decibel! Attired in an outrageous leather outfit, Lexxus energetically delivered a hit filled set which included his first #1 single, "Get Wid It", produced by King Jammy$ and subsequent hits "Yuh Nah", featuring 1999's most popular dancehall riddim, the Street Sweeper and "Cook", urging women to brush up on their culinary skills to keep their men happy ("cook!.....here......recipe book!) both produced by Steely & Clevie. Other Lexxus tunes dominating radio air play in Jamaica (and in Caribbean enclaves throughout the United States and England) include his first number one single "Ring Mi Celle", "Real Age" featuring sidekick Kiprich and imaginative "Divine Reasoning" (King Jammys), Lexxus' conversation with The Creator: "every night mi go to mi bed mi haffi pray, thank Father God for letting mi see another day\gimme the health, gimme the strength to let mi sing and deejay, don't care what nobody say". The deejay thanks God for everything in his life including "the gal that gimme sex"; while the Almighty's hallowed voice reminds him, "Lex, don't forget your Durex!" "If I'm drinking a Heineken I say all right God, drink it with me. I was in a jam and God got me out of it, so I want to build a nice church because I promised God I would."

 

VP Records has released the long awaited Lexxus debut album, "Mr. Lex" on June 20th, 2000. "Mr. Lex" is a 20 track hit filled collection (including "Ring Mi Celle", "Divine Reasoning", "Cook", "Get Wid It" and "Yuh Nuh") boasting the skills of dancehall's finest producers and their latest riddims (a rhythm or "riddim" is a producer's instrumental creation over which a singer or deejay will lay his vocal track) each showcasing Lexxus' rapid fire rhyming skills and his gift for weaving humorous, topical tales.

Producers Steely and Clevie return with their brand new Bad Weather riddim, supporting Lexxus' "Red Ya Now" while Delon Reid (from Steely and Clevie's Studio 2000) contributes the production of "Let Those Monkey's Out". Clevie's nephew, Richard "Shams" Browne lends his family talents with his new riddim the ORGASM on the "Full Hundred", New York's Bobby Konders' distinctive hip-hop accented production provides a crisp Big Apple flavor to "Ride For Me" and "Stress".

Singer Wayne Wonder accompanies Lexxus' laments of love lost due to macho stubbornness on the Lating tinged "Thug Love", produced by Tony "CD" Kelly; "Anything You Do" produced by Richie D, features the sultry vocals of Nadine Sutherland who offers a lyrical challenge to Lexxus: "anything that you're gonna do, I'm gonna do it to, this girl don't play that". On "Nyam Mi Out" featuring producer Richie D's red hot Scotch Bonnet riddim, Lexxus warms women with insatiable appetites for material possessions to proceed cautiously: "no gal can nyam (eat) mi out, nyam out this brother", while "No Problem" produced by Q45 reminds many of the same women if money ("lobster you nyam while some gal a nyam crab") men, houses, even visas aren't their problems, why do they "gwaan" so bad?

"Call U" is a scorching duet with the first lady of the dancehall, Lady Saw, declaring herself Lexxus' "worker" for life, overtime included, much to the disappointment of his many female admires: "every gal a cus since Lexxus bus'\ never did know mi a wine him first".

"Look How Long" featuring Kiprich (produced by singer Richie Stephens) depicts politicians unfulfilled promises as evidenced in the devastation rampant in Kingston's ghetto communities. "War Start" blows in on the hurricane riddim bringing with it the grim realities of "bad man" justice, contrasting "Di Message" which implores living with God in your heart, delivering a classic roots rock, bass rumbling reggae style through the production talents of Richie D featuring Dean Fraser, acclaimed saxophonist and musical director for Kingston's Fire House Crew, the backing band for singer Luciano.

Lexxus' devastating lyrical demonstration throughout "No Day (Lexxus freestyle)" and the new Scarface riddim track "You" both produced by Shocking Vibes, solidifies the deejay's designated role in returning Jamaican music to the forefront of international popularity while striving towards his personal goal of headlining Yankee Stadium. "I've been around this business professionally since 1992 and I'm just getting the break now that I really worked for", he observes. "I was recording, performing at a lot of shows, there wasn't a time I stopped working but nothing was happening. But everything happens at the right time….."

Lexxus' success is a result of daily divine reasoning which has enabled him to derive inner strength and professional discipline, surmounting the many obstacles intrinsic to the fickle music industry. "I'm from the ghetto and I remember wearing the other peoples clothes, going nights hungry, sitting and crying with my mom because we didn't have anything. Now I'm at the stage where I can have things and make other people have things too. That's why I want to start producing, because I know I can build artists but I want to build myself first."

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