Sweetie Irie cranks it up
In the 1990s, deejay Sweetie Irie was one of the biggest dancehall artistes in the United Kingdom. After a lull, he is back on that country’s pop charts.
He is featured onCrank It (Whoa), a dancehall/EDM track by producers Kideko and George Kwali. It is released by Ministry of Sound.
British rapper Nadia Rose is also on Crank It (Whoa) which moved from 50 to number 42 in its fifth week on the chart. It is in a television commercial for Lucozade Sport in the UK.
Sweetie Irie, whose real name is Dean Bent, has Jamaican connections. Born in West London, his father is from Old Harbour in St Catherine.
His father promoted reggae shows in the UK, while uncle Wally Bent owned a sound system there called Terror Tone Sound.
“I used to visit Jamaica at least three times a year, but now I only visit once or twice a year,” Sweetie Irie told the
Jamaica Observer on the weekend.
He first tasted success in 1989 on a remix of reggae group Aswad’s hit On And On which went number 25 on the UK national chart. It was their bass player Angus Gaye who gave Sweetie Irie his break.
“Angus heard about me because I was deejaying on sounds systems in London. Someone gave him a cassette with my vocals and he recruited me to do some work on the remix of On and On,” he recalled.
After signing with Island Records subsidiary Mango Records, Sweetie Irie released his debut album, DJ of The Future. He gained a following with songs like New Talk, Maaga Man, Money Honey, and Call Me.
He made the British pop charts again in 1991 on the Scritti Politti single Take Me In Your Arms which reached number 47. Ten years later, another chart entry came on Ed Case’s Who, which reached number 29.
Guest spots on remixes of The Gorillaz’s 2001 number four UK hit Clint Eastwood (certified platinum for sales of over 600,000 copies) and No Doubt’s Rock Steady helped increase Sweetie Irie’s mainstream profile. He also collaborated with fellow British acts Maxi Priest and Miss Dynamite.
Sweetie Irie is working on songs for his fifth album scheduled for release in 2017.
— Kevin Jackson
