Ranking Dread

Ranking Dread
Birth nameRobert Anthony Blackwood
Also known asWinston Brown, Errol Codling, Michael Dicks, Boyark
Born9 May 1956
Trelawny Parish, Jamaica
OriginKingston, Jamaica
Died1996 (aged 40–41)
GenresReggae, dancehall
OccupationDeejay
Years activeMid-1970s–early 1980s
LabelsBurning Sounds, Greensleeves

Ranking Dread (born Winston Brown; c. 1955 – 1996)[1][2][3] was a Jamaican reggae deejay and was born in the Jamaican parish of Trelawny but grew up in the Kingston ghettos of Rema and Tivoli. He became famous for his work with the Ray Symbolic sound system in the 1970s. His later years in the UK and North America were ended by legal issues.

  1. ^ Moskowitz, David V. (2006) Caribbean Music: an Encyclopedia of Reggae, Mento, Ska, Rock Steady, and Dancehall, Greenwood Press, ISBN 0-313-33158-8, p. 246.
  2. ^ Barrow, Steve & Dalton, Peter (2003) The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd edn, Rough Guides, ISBN 1-84353-329-4, p. 274.
  3. ^ "'Yardie' charged on arrival", The Daily Gleaner, 11 November 1988, p. 1.