Yellowman

• Winston Foster OD, better known by the stage name Yellowman, is a Jamaican reggae and dancehall deejay. He first became popular in Jamaica in the 1980s, rising to prominence with a series of singles that established his reputation.
• Yellowman is considered to be one of the genre’s pioneers and has been credited with “almost single-handedly [creating] the coarse, crude and fearlessly direct sound of today’s dancehall.” Spearheading the first generation of dancehall deejays, he brought the genre to an international audience as the first dancehall artist to sign with a major American record label; Columbia Records, and was also nominated for two Grammy Awards.
• His first studio album release was in 1982 entitled Mister Yellowman followed by Zungguzungguguzungguzeng in 1983 earning instant success with his popular hit song “Mad Over Me”.
• By the mid-1990s, Yellowman released socially conscious material, rising to international fame along with singers such as Buju Banton. Yellowman became the island’s most popular deejay. During the early 1980s, Yellowman had over 40 singles and produced up to five albums per year.
• Foster re-invented himself with his 1994 album Prayer, which stepped away from the slackness that gave him his initial fame in favor of a more religious theme as a way to thank God for his success in music as well as in surviving cancer. His latest albums are New York (2003), Round 1 (2005), and No More War (2019). Yellowman was also a featured guest vocalist on the Run-DMC track “Roots Rap Reggae”.
• Yellowman continues to perform internationally with his Sagittarius Band, and has toured through places such as Nigeria where he retains a following of fans, as well as Spain, Peru, Sweden, Italy, Germany, Britain, France, Kenya, the United States and Canada.
• In 2018, he was awarded with the Order of Distinction by the Jamaican government.