Barrington Levy

Barrington Levy is a Jamaican reggae and dancehall singer whose soaring, distinctive falsetto helped define the sound of early-1980s Jamaican music. Emerging as a teenager out of Kingston, he first found success with the Roots Radics band before scoring one of the genre's defining hits with «Broader Than Broadway», later widely known as «Here I Come», whose catchy chant-along hook made it a dancehall standard still sampled and referenced decades later.

Working extensively with producers associated with the Volcano and Jah Life camps, Levy built a catalogue defined by warm, rootsy rhythms paired with pop instincts, moving fluidly between conscious lyrics and lover's-rock sensibility. Songs like «Under Mi Sensi» and «Too Experienced» became foundational dancehall tracks, while «Black Roses» showed his more reflective, roots-leaning side, cementing him as one of the most sampled voices in reggae's crossover into hip-hop and jungle/drum and bass.

Levy's influence reaches well beyond reggae circles: his vocal phrasing and hits have been sampled by acts across hip-hop and electronic music, and he remains a touring and recording fixture, with later releases such as «Hypocrites» showing he has kept working steadily across decades rather than resting on his early success.