[2] His mother Cynthia Hamilton was a market woman by trade, and his father was a Barbadian who worked as a waiter at the Sombero Club in Kingston.
[1] Many of the top Jamaican singers of the time were also from Trench Town, and Johnson took inspiration from the likes of John Holt, Dennis Brown, and Alton Ellis, regularly visiting the latter's yard in nearby White Street.
[1] When political violence escalated in Kingston, Johnson moved away to Montego Bay, where he stayed with Ellis's younger brother Irving.
[1] Johnson spent a lot of time at the Rasta camp on Selassie Drive, where he met Les Clarke and Balvin Finals, with whom he formed the vocal trio Mystic I.
[1][2] Ongoing solo, he recorded for several of the top Jamaican producers, most at Channel One Studios, including Linval Thompson ("Africa", "Life is Not Easy"), Henry "Junjo" Lawes ("Let Go This One", "Now I Know"), and Harry J ("Follow Them Footsteps"), but had his greatest success working with Jah Thomas who produced his first big hit in 1982 with "Gunshot",[3] which pleaded for a cessation of the so-called "shotta" mentality,[4] and which has remained a perennial favorite with sound systems.