Pharaoh rules with risqué new single

Dancehall artiste Pharaoh is generating a buzz with the risque single, ' Want Some a Yu Ting'.

"I leased the rhythm from an online platform, and it ah warm up the street right now. The song got a big 'forward' at Uptown Mondays the other day. The fans dem love the momentum, the image, the vocals ... so right now, we ah tek it to them," said Pharaoh, whose given name is Rayon Robinson.

The song was released earlier this month on the Pharaoh Dynasty label.

Pharaoh wants to correct what he dubs the "echo chamber" effect that currently dominates dancehall, with its glut of songs that extol the virtues of 'badness' and toxic masculinity.

"I see music as an expression of the soul. There is no limit to my self-expression. I want to bring the potency back to dancehall with properly produced songs about engaging social topics, instead of the same old, same old," he said.

Originally from Amity Hall, St Thomas, he knew that he wanted to be a performer at age five. During his teenage years, he began experimenting with dancehall.

"I wrote my first song when I suffered my first heartbreak, when I was in grade five. Since that time, I have written hundreds of songs," he said.

After graduating from Happy Grove High School, he landed a job with John Swaby Entertainment, a production company that deals with lighting and sound for live entertainment events.

He worked at several major stage shows, such as Sting, Sumfest and Pepsi Teen Splash.

He did his first song, Black Woman: Mother of Creation, in Negril, Westmoreland, in 2001, when he was still known as 'Ice' by his friends.

"As time went along, I realised there were too many 'Ices' in entertainment, too many kings ... so I chose Pharaoh," he said.

He migrated to the US in 2014, where he began to groom himself in that 'pharaoh' image, complete with a strenuous health and fitness regimen.

There are plans to release a seven-song hardcore dancehall EP this summer.