Reggae star Jah Cure is heading back behind ‘prison walls’, marking another chapter in what has been a turbulent life dogged by controversy, and several emotional highs and lows in his 44 years on the planet.  

Born Siccaturie Alcock on 11 October 1978 in Hanover, Jamaica, he fell in love with music at a young age, often sneaking out to watch local stage shows including the annual Reggae Sunsplash in Montego Bay.

At these shows he saw great reggae icons performing and, by the age of 11, Jah Cure made the decision he wanted to become part of that elite group. 

Initially using the name “Little Melody,” Siccaturie moved to Kingston to pursue his dream and he was given the name Jah Cure by Capleton whom he met while growing up in Kingston. 

His first big break came in March 1997 when he released the single “King in this Jungle”, a duet with Sizzla, which was produced by musical icon Beres Hammond who eventually became his mentor. 

READ: Jah Cure sentenced to six years in prison

Hammond subsequently took Cure under his wing and began mentoring him in the studio and producing him. In 1998, Cure performed on a European tour and visited several Caribbean Islands with Beres Hammond and the Harmony House Family.

Before he could make his mark, a fateful event would change his life forever. 

In November 1998, while driving around his native Montego Bay, the singer was pulled over by the police and arrested on charges of gun possession, robbery and rape. He was prosecuted before the Gun Court. 

In April 1999, he was found guilty and sentenced to 15 years in prison. He was transferred from the St Catherine Adult Correctional Centre to the Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre, which had a digital recording studio the inmates could use. 

While there, he started to finetune his sound. He recorded and released several records, many of which topped the charts as # 1 singles. During his imprisonment, the young singer’s popularity skyrocketed during the last leg of his sentence following the release of his hit singles such as Longing For in 2005 for producer Don Corleone, Love Is, also in 2005.  That year, BBC promoted the Jamaican lovers rock reggae crooner as the “hottest artist anywhere right now”.

Between the years 2005 to 2007, Cure’s music saturated the airwaves globally, prompting many selectors and artistes to call for his release from prison, sometimes to get a forward from the masses and also to show their support for what many believed to be a ‘generational talent’.  Many artistes began to wear black Free Jah Cure events in public to show their support. 

In 2007, he released the mega hit, True Reflection (Prison Walls) for Down Sound Records.

After serving eight years in jail, Cure was released from prison on July 28, 2007. On the first day of his release and freedom from prison, Cure publicly stated that his only remaining goal for the rest of his life was to spread love and to promote peace and healing, universally through his music.

He performed at a sold-out event at the Trelawny Multi-purpose stadium with a stellar line up, marking his return to music. 

He dropped another album a few days after his paroled release , his fourth album, True Reflections…A New Beginning. Then he toured extensively to at least eight consecutive sold-out performances all over the Caribbean as his previous conviction excluded him from shows in the UK and the US. However, ironically, Europe welcomed him with open arms. 

His first concert in Europe after he was released took place in the Netherlands at the Reggae Sundance festival in August 2007. He was the last and headlining act.

Since his release in 2007, Jah Cure has topped the music charts with a number of singles including Call on Me and You’ll Never Find.

Four years after leaving prison, Cure married TV Host/Producer Kamila McDonald and on February 20, 2012, the couple welcomed a baby girl named Kailani Belle.

He continued to work steadily. 

However, the cracks began to show in the last five years with a staggering number of scandals and public controversies, precipitated by his divorce from Kamila McDonald. 

One of his frequent imbroglios included a leaked voice note where he disrespected selectors, and then there was a leaked video where he was recorded in a verbal altercation with two women. In another incident, he was knocked out by an irate jealous boyfriend who believed that the Unconditional Love singer was romancing his girl in a Bahamas hotel room.

He had a high profile accident where he wrote off an expensive Benz vehicle four years ago. He began to make questionable utterances on social media, triggering many arguments with industry people. Still, his amazing voice made him a bankable star. 

He released his Royal Soldier album in 2019 and it debuted at number one on the Billboard Reggae Chart.

Recently, he boasted on Instagram that he was the first person to make hits from prison in Jamaica. He admitted that he had smuggled recording equipment into his tiny one-man cell to produce many of his songs before being transferred from the St Catherine Adult Correctional Centre to the Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre. 

“Let me tell you dis. Before Instagram come in, me do the world the greatest justice. I want the world to know this, don’t forget that I am the first person in the world …” he began in the Instagram video. “I, Jah Cure, is the first human being on earth, the planet to make music from prison and hit number one worldwide.”

“I am the first human being to make music illegally in prison, you hear what I said ‘illegally’,” he maintained arrogantly. 

It was another illegal act that would trigger another dark chapter in the singer’s life. 

On October 1, 2021 Jah was arrested in Amsterdam after allegedly stabbing a music promoter in the stomach. On March 22, 2022 he was found guilty and sentenced to six years in prison on a charge of attempted manslaughter. 

Prior to his incarceration, Jah Cure had announced the final touches to a new album entitled Undeniable, a fitting title given the singer’s undeniable talent and his penchant for attracting controversy.

Jah Cure is a generational talent, one that is ‘undeniably’ unforgettable. But can he cure his legal troubles?