Dancehall.Mobi

Hailing from the parish of St. James, Collin Levy, aka Iley Dread, developed a passion for music at age seven. With his mom living in Kingston, Iley would commute between St. James and Kingston. It was in his teens that he met Dennis Brown while on a visit to the 12 Tribes Assembly. Iley approached the late singer and did some acapella songs for him. An impressed Brown encouraged him to continue and he even recorded two of the songs that Iley himself penned – “Wonders of Creation” and “What’s the Use”.

In 1991, Iley Dread migrated to Quebec, Canada and worked there in his family’s restaurant – Rainbow Ites – as a chef. While working, he wrote and produced for young local talent, and he sometimes performed at the Ites talent shows. In 1994 he was introduced to Bevin Jackson, the owner of Bulleyes Recording Label. Bevin encouraged him to record his own material, and start his own production company. By the following year, ‘Kings of Kings’ was born. Bevin became Iley’s mentor, and he produced quite a number of songs for Iley – five of which were included on his first album, “A Friend for Life”.

Their blossoming friendship was cut short as a result of the untimely passing of Bevin – due to injuries that he received in a motor vehicle accident. “A Friend for Life” was released in 2001, and featured appearances from Glen Washington, Lady Saw, Louie Culture, Luciano, Christini and Norris Man among others. The album was nominated for a Juno award by the Canadian Academy of Arts and Sciences in the Best Reggae Recording category.

Iley has not only made strides as an artiste, but also as a songwriter. He has penned and produced many a song for Mykal Rose, Beenie Man, Everton Blenda, Sizzla, the late Dennis Brown and a host of other reggae artistes. He also decided that he wanted to do much more than singing and penning lyrics; he also wanted to take on the task of producing songs and promoting shows. In 1998, Kings of Kings introduced their annual family tour, and he has toured extensively since then. The family tour has visited Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, France, the United States, Canada, Jamaica, St. Vincent, Barbados, Trinidad and St. Martin.

In 2001, Kings of Kings opened their production/ recording studio in Kingston Jamaica. Since then a battalion of hit riddims (including Coolie Dance, Dancehall Rock, Double Jeopardy and Zion Bread, among others), have emerged from this production team.

In recent times also, Iley Dread has been busy in the studio working on his latest project – an album entitled “Unleashed”. The album has production input from a number of producers including Stephen Marley, Bobby Digital, Dean Fraser and Stephen McGregor, and while no release date has been confirmed for it as yet, “Are You Sure” – the first single off the album – has reportedly been getting quite a bit of air play both locally and on the international scene.

Next month (November), Iley Dread will be heading to Europe alongside the Dub Tronic group for a tour. More on this soon.

- Contributed