Soul Survivor

How Yellowman turned personal adversity into a stellar music career

PHOTOGRAPHER: CHAMPION HAMILTON
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Although the origins of dancehall music can be traced as far back as the 1940s, the first man to make it an international music phenomenon was Winston Foster, better known to dancehall fans as King Yellowman. While Shabba Ranks, Shaggy and Sean Paul have all made promethean contributions towards boosting dancehall’s marketability worldwide, Foster bears the uncanny distinction of being the first to prove it was possible.

Yellow’s resume has made him a tough act to follow even two decades removed from the height of his recording career. Evidently, this is because his role in the popularization of Jamaican music and culture has been that of a trail-blazing pioneer. He’s the first deejay to be nominated for a Grammy and record with major hip-hop acts. He is also the first to ink a deal with a major U.S. record label (CBS Records).

This past August Yellow performed at Irie Jamboree before over 36,000 fans in Queens, New York. A natural entertainer, it was hard to tell whether it was 2008 or 1983 based on the reception he got once he hit the stage. The crowd erupted in nostalgic reverence as the Henry “Junjo” Lawes produced “I’m Getting Married in the Morning” wafted from the towering stage speakers. Guillaume Bougie, a 26-year-old banker from Montreal, Quebec Canada, drove all the way form the City of Saints with his buddies in tow to see King Yellow perform for the very first time. “I’ve been listening to Yellow Man since I was a kid. He’s the best,” says a starry-eyed Bougie, who had attended a wedding with friends the day before.

“My music is real,” says Yellow during an interview with Fast Food for Thought following his Irie Jam performance. “It’s dance music that brings a positive vibe to the people. My performances are real so whenever I go on stage I expect a positive response from the fans. That’s what I get wherever I go.”

Considering his spectacular accomplishments, it’s difficult to even imagine that Yellow’s rise to dancehall supremacy was an improbable one. While he is championship caliber deejay, and a winner in life, his tumultuous upbringing gave him every reason to loose. Yellow was shunned by his biological parents because of his albinism and spent much of his formative years in the Maxfield Home orphanage in Kingston, Jamaica. Nevertheless, he found a way to succeed despite the personal challenges that his melanin deficit presented him. “It was very difficult to deal with as a youth, but I never allowed it to make me bitter. Instead, I learned to appreciate my uniqueness. Eventually other people did too.”

Foster’s penchant for riddim and rhyme got the attention of local sound systems when he won a Tastee Patties-sponsored deejay contest in the late ’70s. By the early ’80s, the stellar trajectory of his career brought him to superstardom. Yellow occupied the world stage and became a musical ambassador of his beloved island.

Yellow says that he is living proof that if you work on developing your talent, and remain ambitious, it is more than possible for you to overcome any perceived limitations. “No matter what, you can’t give up, mon!,” the animated Albino wonder admonishes. “If you set out on a mission don’t give up. One day! One day! Your time will come, because nothing happens before its time.”