Anthony B
A Trelawny-born chanter who made “Fire Pon Rome” and “Raid the Barn” feel like street sermons. Anthony B carried Rastafari-centered protest back into the dancehall without softening the drums.
Keith Blair emerged nationally as Anthony B in the mid-1990s, part of a generation reacting against dancehall’s narrowest gun and slackness formulas without abandoning its energy. Working with producer Richard “Bello” Bell and Star Trail, he broke through with “Fire Pon Rome,” “Raid the Barn” and “Repentance Time.” His performance style is closer to a rally than a meditation: rapid chant, biblical language, political criticism and physical stage command. Anthony B’s long international career shows that “conscious reggae” does not have to mean slow or polite. It can arrive on hard dancehall riddims and still argue about poverty, violence, governance and spiritual responsibility.