Gavinchi

January 4th, 19 "eighty-sum'n" was a memorable day in Jamaican music history. This was the day that a famous female artist of the eighties (Shirley McLean) and a renown radio personality (Owen “O.B” Brown) brought a bouncing baby boy into the world, and they called him Gavin. From birth, Gavin has been submerged in and surrounded by music as not only his parents but many of his relatives and family friends have all been intimately involved in the music fraternity. Commercially, the UK based Me&You were the most successful of the lot, as they rose to the top echelon of the British charts in the 1980s.

A proud resident of East Kingston, Gavin spent the better part of 16 years living in Rollington Town before moving to the calmer Harbour View area. This kind of upbringing (with the good, bad, ugly and indifferent), backed by a solid academic foundation, has allowed him to pen and deliver different socio-economic elements of Jamaican life with so much clarity and conviction whilst making it entertaining at the same time.

Gavin began showing much musical promise from as early as age 5 when he began playing the drums at an advanced/semi-professional level at the Jamaica School of Music under the tutelage of Sparrow Martin, Carl Ayton (who he later worked with) and many others. He began honing his stage craft in 1991 as a solo act by performing at school concerts, barbeques, etc. In 1995, Gavin made his first recording and landed his first live radio interview with top Jamaican disk jock Richie B.

The subsequent years saw Gavin emerging as a profound writer/lyricist and at one point; he was even playing the guitar. However, it wasn’t until 1998/99 that Gavin began making deliberate and intentional steps towards being a successful full-time Artist and adopted “Gavinchi” as a moniker/stage name. Gavinchi has had three recordings in rotation on all of Jamaica’s major radio stations and one of them (“Michelle” which features Reggae Icon Edi Fitzroy) has earned him two live performances on national television in Jamaica.

To date, Gavinchi has performed at several events in and around the Kingston Metropolitan Region, various parts of California and Hawaii (U.S.A) and is also slated to move on to several parts of Europe and Canada shortly. He has performed alongside the likes of Ernie Smith, Beenie Man, Vybz Kartel, Baby Cham and many others. He has also worked with some of Jamaica’s finest musical talents, such as Dwight Pinkney, Steve Golding, Keith Francis, Charmaine Bowman, among others. His style, although eclectic, is always unmistakably Dancehall at its core. What Gavinchi has done on his groundbreaking debut album “In My Lifetime” is unprecedented in many ways; his lyrical depth and delivery being the most apparent. The album is the perfect blend of musical arrangement, production and vocal delivery underlying the story of a young black male from Jamaica. Gavinchi tells a gripping tale of poverty, pain, teenage pregnancy, crime, death, despair, karma, joy, love, life, happiness, hope and God all in what is arguably the ‘Best Dancehall Debut Ever’. “In My Lifetime” is a delightfully unique blend of Real Roots Reggae and Dancehall with Hip-Hop influences; a mixture of Shabba Ranks, 2Pac and Bob Marley, all in perfect proportion with so much more than you would expect. Gavinchi has given birth to a new genre of Music; Sub- Stancehall Music and is it's first valiant represenatative. Sub-Stancehall is Dancehall music with Substance, not mere rhymes and hooks which has now become commonplace. The true substance of Authentic Reggae Music is alive and well in all his tracks.

We are all witnessing the rise of a new era and Gavinchi is its focal point. Ladies and gentlemen, the future is here; as a matter of fact, Gavinchi is the past and future wrapped up in our beautiful present. Time is the master and ultimate test of all that is; it will undoubtedly prove how great Gavinchi is.