Baby Cham

Dameon Beckett emerged as Baby Cham and rapidly established himself among Jamaica’s leading dancehall figures before his twentieth birthday. His stage name derived from his youthful features, which created a sharp contrast with his resonant, commanding vocal tone.

Within the fertile musical setting of Kingston’s Waterhouse district, Cham absorbed dancehall culture from childhood onward. By age seven he observed seasoned DJs refining their microphone craft while he simultaneously developed his own abilities at school. After classes he regularly visited recording studios, where he encountered established reggae artists including Shabba Ranks. These encounters eventually secured him an opening slot with Spragga Benz and a subsequent creative alliance with producer Dave Kelly. Their partnership yielded multiple hit singles that later appeared together on the two-disc collection Wow...the Story, assembled expressly to present Cham to listeners beyond Jamaica.