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Ini Kamoze
Artist Profile

Ini Kamoze

Ini Kamoze ( EYE-nee kə-MOH-zee, born Cecil Campbell; 9 October 1957) is a Jamaican reggae singer who began his career in the early 1980s and rose to prominence in 1994 with the signature song "Here Comes the Hotstepper". The single topped the US Billboard Hot 100 as well as charts in Denmark and New Zealand, reaching No. 4 on the UK Singles Chart.

Career

Early work

Ini Kamoze, whose stage name means "mountain of the true God", made his first single, "World Affairs", in 1981, and he followed it with "Trouble You a Trouble Me"/"General" in 1983. His self-titled debut album came out in 1984 as a six-track mini-LP on Island Records. In the album notes, he describes himself as a "pencil thin... disentangled... six-foot vegetarian". The record included the song "World a Music (Out in the Streets They Call It Merther)", which was later sampled by Damian Marley on his 2005 hit "Welcome to Jamrock". The album was recorded with and produced by Sly and Robbie, with whom Kamoze also toured internationally, along with Yellowman and Half Pint. By 1988, however, Kamoze had effectively disappeared from the music scene following lukewarm reactions to his intermittent releases. In 1989,...

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Albums

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Songs on JamaicansMusic

57 playable tracks in the catalog.

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From the archive

Career timeline

Stories about Ini Kamoze from the JamaicansMusic archive, oldest first · 2014

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  1. 2014

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