Elephant Man

Born in 1974 as O'Neil Bryan, the exuberant DJ Elephant Man, also called Energy God, established himself as a leading force in dancehall. Classmates in Kingston’s Seaview Gardens section tagged him “Dumbo Elephant” because of his sizable ears during childhood. Shabba Ranks and Bounty Killer lived in the same neighborhood at the time, and the nearby presence of King Jammy’s studio gave the young artist early contact with dancehall sounds. While performing at the entrances to the studios of Ranks and Jammy, he caught Bounty Killer’s ear, prompting the veteran to suggest forming a crew with other Seaview teenagers. The collective began as Seaview Family, yet after Bounty Killer scored a major success with “Big Guns Scare Dem,” the name shifted to Scare Dem Crew. Although the group issued only one album, festival appearances across Jamaica let Elephant Man sharpen his animated stage presence. One peak came at the dancehall night of 1998’s Reggae Sumfest, where he scaled a television camera crane and spat his high-energy rhymes from high above the crowd.

Questions from the rest of Scare Dem about his willingness to work as part of a unit led Elephant Man to exit, feeling slighted. On his own, he folded in the hip-hop rhythms he favored for his first full-length project, Comin’ 4 You, which Greensleeves released in 2000. The title track from his next album, Log On, became a major hit, while the record’s commentary on the WTC attacks drew widespread press coverage. A duet with one of his favorite rappers, Busta Rhymes, surfaced on a remix of Lil Jon’s “Get Low,” and Mariah Carey tapped the DJ for a spot on her Charmbracelet album. Atlantic Records noticed his momentum and put out his major-label debut, Good 2 Go, in late 2003, just as his single “Pon di River, Pon di Bank” was dominating urban radio. In 2008, Let’s Get Physical arrived on the VP label through a partnership with P. Diddy’s Bad Boy Records; the set included the single “Five-O” featuring Wyclef Jean and guest spots from Chris Brown and Busta Rhymes. Featuring the Jamaican hit “Nuh Linga,” the 2011 album Dance & Sweep! Adventures of the Energy God marked his return to VP proper. He joined Major Lazer’s Free the Universe in 2013 and notched a solo success with his cover of Eminem’s “Berzerk.”