TONY REBEL REMEMBERS HIS FRIEND GARNET SILK!

By Howard Campbell— 

 Tony Rebel and Garnet Silk—

THE Jamaican dancehall was mired in lewd and violent lyrics throughout the 1980s. That carried over into the 1990s until a group of Rastafarian artists from south-central parishes brought their message of consciousness to a music that had lost its way.

Heading the group was dub poet Yasus Afari, deejay Tony Rebel and singer Garnet Silk. Singers Everton Blender and Uton Green, and deejay Kulcha Knox were also part of the crew.

Rebel, Silk and Blender enjoyed the most mainstream success. Silk and Rebel were from Manchester and knew each other since the early 1980s when they performed on sound systems in that parish.

Rebel told Splash that they quickly developed a bond — one that grew after both discovered Rastafari.

“Dem time dey wi a search…wi read the Bible, reason every day,” Rebel recalled.

After moving to Kingston in 1987, Rebel says Silk followed. They lived in the same house while trying to get a break in the music businesss, working stage shows and hanging out at recording studios.

Donovan Germain

Both entered the charts around 1992. Once they did, they never left for the next two years, often recording for the same producers, including Donovan Germain and Bobby ‘Bobby Digital’ Dixon.

In fact, Germain produced Gave You Everything I’ve Got, one of Silk’s biggest hits which was written by Rebel. The deejay also wrote another Silk hit, Love is Divine, produced by Digital.

Rebel remembers speaking to Silk for the final time one day after he performed at The Mirage nightclub in St Andrew at singer Richie Stephens’ birthday show. It was two days before he died.

“Him sey him neva feel so hungry fi sing,” said Rebel, who left for The Bahamas the following day. It was while there on a show with Diana King, Luther Vandross and Nancy Wilson that he got news that Silk and his mother, Etiga Gray, had died in a fire at her Manchester home.

Richie Stevens & Garnet Silk…Silk’s last performance!

“Mi fly home the next day. (Promoter) Worrell King gi mi his space on the flight,” Rebel said.

Though Silk had a brief career, Rebel insists he changed the course of Jamaican music with his humility and spirituality.

“Mi nuh question the fact dat him lef’ so soon, a Jah works. Dat was one of the things ’bout Garnet, him did sincere wid him love for Jah.”