Jahdan Blakkamoore

For dubstep fans, the 2009 album Buzzrock Warrior was singer/rapper Jahdan Blakkamoore's breakthrough effort, but his career goes all the way back to the late '90s when he was just Jahdan, a revolutionary soldier enrolled in the Boot Camp Clik. Born in Guyana but raised in Brooklyn, Jahdan met hip-hop's revered Smif-N-Wessun through the Boot Camp, and with his reggae-influenced vocals, he became the keystone of the duo's single "Sound Bwoy Bureill." Further guest shots with DJ Premiere, Dead Prez, and even Branford Marsalis followed, all while Jahdan was working with his own band, the futuristic reggae crew Noble Society. In 2009 he found a whole new audience when he contributed to Guns Don't Kill People... Lazers Do, the debut album from Diplo and Switch's dancehall project Major Lazer. That same year Jahdan released Buzzrock Warrior, with production from DJ Rupture and the dubstep crew Dutty Artz. With more of a roots reggae-based sound, the album Babylon Nightmare followed in 2010, then in 2013, he lent his vocals and helped co-write tracks on Snoop Dogg's Grammy-nominated reggae album Reincarnated. In 2014, the single "For the Children," with Kabaka Pyramid appeared as a preview of Jahdan's 2015 effort Order of Distinction. ~ David Jeffries