FRANKIE PAUL BIOGRAFIA

FRANKIE PAUL BIOGRAFIA

Paul Blake aka Frankie Paul is hailed as one of Jamaica's biggest dancehall stars. He was born blind in 1965 and attended a Salvation Army school for the blind, where he first began singing. When Frankie Paul was four years old, he went on the Hope Ship where they worked with him for four years enabling him to see through his right eye; he later went to New York to obtain a pair of high-powered glasses that helped even further. His parents could not afford to buy him musical instruments and therefore Frankie Paul developed his musical skills and talent in the church and in school. When Stevie Wonder visited the school, Paul sang for him, and an impressed Wonder encouraged him to go into music. Paul learned the piano, drums, and guitar while still in school, and was most influenced as a singer by Dennis Brown in his early days.
At the age of thirteen Frankie Paul sang on his first recording, "African Princess", recorded at Tuff Gong Studios. After meeting Henry "Jungo" Laws the following year, Frankie Paul took the Reggae market by storm with a string of hits recorded at Channel One. In 1983, he appeared on two volumes in Channel One's Showdown series, one with Sugar Minott and the other with Little John. The former LP contained Paul's first major hit, the Henry "Junjo" Lawes-produced "Worries in the Dance," which aligned him with the emerging dancehall sound.
He performed with the "Mighty Tides"(out of Kingston) where he met A.J. Boots Brown who influenced his musical style and skills. He began to work the hotel-cabaret circuit performing with A.J. in Montego Bay, Portland, Ocho Rios & Kingston. Eventually he continued to perform live with the "High Times Players". His hits continued to bring him fame as Frankie Paul’s music stayed on dancehall charts in Jamaica and abroad. In 1984, four of his songs held the Reggae dancehall chart in N.Y. at once: 1. Worries In The Dance, 2. Pass The Kushunpeng, 3. Hooligan 4. Sara
His prolific and charismatic style carried him across the globe spreading his fame all over the Caribbean, England, Europe & Japan. Frankie Paul has gained countless merit for both his recordings and his live performance. He has been crowned with a multitude of titles including: Frankie Paul the "Dance Master", Frankie "Kushunpeng" Paul, "Tune-A-Day" Paul and since 1995 Frankie "Gahgile" Paul. Currently his musical endeavors have led him to Crucial Youth Productions in Oakland, California where Frankie Paul. has collaborated with Rankin' Scroo of Rankin' Scroo & Ginger and Money B of Digital Underground. The sound that the three are producing on track continues to accent Frankie Paul's amazing diversity and musical aptitudes.
Paul continued to record for a variety of labels in the '90s, with LP highlights including 1991's Should I and 1994's Hard Work. To keep up his prolific recording pace, he came to depend heavily on covers, whether of reggae classics or contemporary American R&B material. He continued into the new millennium as a tremendously active presence on the reggae scene. Frankie Paul is often referred to as Jamaica's Stevie Wonder, and not just because of his visual impairment; like Wonder, he was a talented multi-instrumentalist with a tremendous vocal range. He was also extraordinarily prolific; part of the first wave of dancehall artists and has since flooded the market with product, releasing countless singles and well over 30 albums. That's made his career difficult to track for all but the most ardent fans, but it's also ensured that he's never been too far out of the spotlight on a constantly changing reggae scene.

BACK