Edi Fitzroy

Born on 17 November 1955 in Clarendon, Jamaica, Fitzroy spent his teenage years trailing the island’s sound systems, with particular devotion to Anchio One. Upon leaving school he took a post as an accounts clerk at the Jamaican Broadcasting Corporation. In his free hours he and a coworker would lay vocals across dubs and replay the results through the station’s own facilities. By 1975 Mikey Dread had risen to become the station’s leading disc jockey, broadcasting reggae on the Dread At The Controls Show, where he encountered Fitzroy’s demo tapes. Patronage from Dread propelled the debut single “Miss Molly Colly” into Jamaica’s Top 10, while its successor “Country Man” cemented Fitzroy’s status as the presenter’s protégé. Further successes followed with “African Religion,” “Gun,” and “Stylee,” prompting a 1980 UK tour alongside Dread in support of the Clash. Returning home, Fitzroy collaborated first with producer Lloyd Norris on the 1981 minor hit “Bad Boy.” Subsequent work with Trevor Elliot of Musical Ambassador yielded an album and the major success “Check For You Once,” then the singles “Youth Man In Penitentiary”—during a Jamaican radio interview he expressly denied any autobiographical basis for the lyric—and “Have You Ever.” These achievements secured an appearance at the 1984 Sunsplash Festival and, reflecting his advocacy for women’s equality, a performance at Kingston’s Zinc Fence on International Women’s Day. The latter stance informed the release of “Princess Black,” after which he was widely recognized as Jamaica’s most socially conscious singer. A re-recording of “The Gun” then enjoyed an extended chart run that surpassed all prior longevity records. In the collective effort to aid famine relief in Ethiopia, Fitzroy contributed vocals to Jamaica’s charity single “Land Of Africa” alongside Gregory Isaacs, Freddie McGregor, Mutabaruka, Triston Palma, Bunny Rugs, David Hinds, and the I-Threes. The participating artists formed the organization Music Is Life to sustain their involvement beyond the one record, and Fitzroy served as co-director with Rita Marley, Judy Mowatt, Michael “Ibo” Cooper, and Orville Tyson, initiating additional projects while maintaining his position at the JBC.