For close to three decades dancehall artiste Mr Lexx (formerly Lexxus) has entertained music lovers with a string of hit songs. Among them are Full Hundred, Get Wid It, Cook, Monkeys Come Out, and Ring Mi Cellie.

The deejay recently announced his retirement from music to focus on another of his passions — acting.

“It’s been 30 years and I’ve performed in over 48 countries. Not only is that a major achievement to me, it’s like I’ve done everything. I’ve been everywhere, so what else am I gonna do now? Throughout my career, I’ve been told to try acting, but I never really pursued that until recently when I was approached. I thought that, since the opportunity presented itself, I should probably go that route and rest music for a bit and try acting,” Mr Lexx told the Jamaica Observer.

“I’m not doing acting as a career, but just for the fun of it,” he continued.

The dancehall artiste hinted at an acting project in which he will be participating.

“I will be doing a Jamaican sitcom. I don’t want to talk too much about it, but it’s about five characters living in an apartment complex. One of the guys is from the ghetto, who got promoted to a big club position, and he starts to make enough money to move into an apartment, and he starts to meet new friends. There’s this girl who becomes his love interest, who everybody pon the complex wants. I’m excited about this project,” said Mr Lexx.

He said at some point he would still do music by touring.

“I will still tour every now and then and sing the old songs that have made me famous. Music is just not the main thing right now.”

Mr Lexx says he has no regrets about pursuing music.

“It’s been a rough road. It’s been up and it’s been down. It’s been miserable and mi get fed up nuff time. But I have no regrets. However, I would’ve made changes to a few choices that I made in my life.”

He cites a Grammy nomination for his participation on the Red Star Sounds Presents Def Jamaica project as a career highlight as well as the MTV Video Music Awards nomination he received in 2009 for the song Hold the Line (featuring Santigold) among his career highlights. His collaboration, Anything Goes, with Wayne Wonder and Cappone-N-Norega was featured on the ‘Def Jamaica’ project. The song made it to number 85 on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart in 2003.

“There’s so much to mention as far as career highlights. I’m probably the only dancehall artiste to have ever been nominated for an MTV Video Music Award (he was nominated in the category Best Breakthru Video). A suppen mi ah go remember for the rest of mi life. I was right there when Kanye West took the microphone from Taylor Swift,” he recalled.

Born Christopher Palmer, the 47-year-old deejay harboured other career options before the music bug bit.

“In high school I played football, I did acting, and was also in a dance group called Squad One. My mother wanted me to become a police officer, so me and a friend went to the Jamaica Police Academy in Twickenham Park to collect the forms one Friday. We filled them out and decided that we were going to drop them off on the Monday… I was passing by the Arrows Recording studio on Windward Road and a voice said to come off the bus. I came off the bus and went over to the studio and that’s where music began for me,” said Mr Lexx.

Mr Lexx was signed to VP Records, which released his debut album Mr Lexx in 2000. Two years ago, he released the seven-track EP titled Touch Down, which features collaborations with up-and-coming acts, including Wasp and Robin Goode. It was produced by Triple X.

There are plans to release his final album, Like I Never Left, next month.