Born Keith Anthony Blair on March 31, 1976 in the rural sugar farming community of Clarkstown located in the northwestern Jamaican parish of Trelawny, Anthony B grew up in a deeply religious family. Singing hymns in church (as well as giving impromptu performances on the roadside in his community) helped Anthony refine his vocal skills. “My mother was an Adventist and my grandmother was a Revivalist, so I’d have to go to church both Saturday and Sunday,” he recalls. Anthony however, chose his own spiritual path, adopting the Rastafarian way of life as a teenager, a decision that caused dissension among his family members. “As a youth growing up, my grandmother say dem Rasta is a blackheart people and they said I had to leave if I didn’t trim (cut his dreadlocks). I wasn’t going to change so I went to live with my aunt and uncle in Portmore (a suburb of Jamaica’s capital city Kingston).”

While still attending school, Anthony joined forces with other aspiring teenage artists and began deejaying (rapping) with a local sound system. Despite his youth, Anthony’s lyrics reflected spiritual convictions and a strong social consciousness, a stark contrast to the pervasive guns and girls rhymes that dominated dancehall Reggae in the early 90s. Another deejay, Little Devon, heard Anthony’s cultural lyrics and introduced him to producer Richard “Bello” Bell of Star Trail Records. Bello, a Bobo Shanti Rastafarian was also known for making uplifting records at a time when such music opposed the prevailing trends. Bello was immediately impressed with Anthony’s vocals and his ability to construct song lyrics.

Anthony recorded a succession of hits for Star Trail including “A De Man” followed by “Hurt The Heart”, “One Thing”, “Rumors” and the classic “Raid The Barn”. Several of Anthony’s Star Trail singles including “Fire ‘Pon Rome” were featured on his critically acclaimed debut album “So Many Things” (VP Records). Anthony’s sophomore effort for VP, 1997’s “Universal Struggle” featured “Nah Vote Again” which continued to lash out against “politricks”; the deejay, however, cast his vote in a campaign to elevate Bob Marley to status of Jamaican National Hero in the Ska flavored “Marley Memories”. “Seven Seals” released in 1999 by VP, adhered to Anthony’s insurrectionary route with the profound “Mr. Heartless” “aimed at all the Governments of the world who are not doing much to help the sufferers” along with “Who Shoot First” and the foreboding “Wicked People”. With each subsequent album, Anthony’s lyrical skills grew more sophisticated while the Bello\Star Trail productions took greater risks, incorporating disparate influences from hard rock guitar riffs to jazzy saxophone solos into a compelling brand of roots rock dancehall.

Several of the 16 tracks featured on Anthony B’s new 2001 release “That’s Life” (VP Records) continue to fuel the revolutionary flames. “Fire ‘Pon The Government” transcends the Jamaican oppressors identified in “Fire ‘Pon Rome” and chastises systems worldwide that enforce racism and corruption: “Haffe burn Fire Pon de Government, Mr.President to the poor you’re negligent\pure fire burn ‘pon de system\poor man alone turn a victim.” “That song is coming from a vibe going through black history in America,” Anthony comments. “In this modern time we feel racism should be abolished, discrimination put away.” Anthony’s razor sharp commentary continues with “Rally Round”. The title is chanted as an empowering mantra with Anthony imploring the youth to “rise up for the struggle, no time to sit by the roadside and wonder\dash way the chain, release the anger, your destiny lies over yonder.” He explains “I didn’t set out to write something controversial but I try to write things that are the truth, something that means something to society. People either like it or they don’t but I’m saying it because it needs to be said. People complain about the state of Reggae today that it’s not uplifting but they don’t want to put that message music forward.”

Bello produced “Fire ‘Pon The Government”, “Mad Dem” and the rollicking “Fire Dance” for “That’s Life” but Anthony recruited additional producers for the remaining 13 tracks to create “a different sort of record”. The title track, courtesy of Bak Beat productions, employs a sparse rhythm as Anthony recounts some of life’s vicissitudes: “superstars get hooked on coke, man get rich, then get broke”. Other producers contributions include New York’s Bobby Konders’ “Dust Dem Out”; Fat Eyes’ “Man Got To Do” and Reggae group Morgan Heritage’s “Wave Off The Cross” and “Lock The Guns Dem”, inspired by the 1999 Columbine High School shooting. Soulful Reggae crooner Beres Hammond produced Anthony’s smash hit “Good Life” (on the smash “They Gonna Talk” riddim)a simple yet effective expression of cooperation: “if it’s one slice a bread, please let we break it”. The Bobo youth from Trelawny also displays romantic inclinations on “Love or Infatuation” (Bak Beat Productions) and the warmly brewed “Black Coffee” produced by Keith Blair (a.k.a. Anthony B).

Anthony B is often compared to Peter Tosh, perhaps the most militant Reggae artist Jamaica has ever produced. Anthony ranks Tosh among his primary musical influences and pays tribute by covering Tosh’s signature anthem “Equal Rights”. Sly and Robbie, who played on Tosh’s 1977 “Equal Rights” album produced the track. “When Peter Tosh sings, you can really feel it, it sounds meaningful, convincing,” explains Anthony. “I stand for Equal Rights and Justice, that’s why I did his song; my music is all about love, purity, not about “downpression”, aggression, racism, and maliciousness.”

His latest album, “Street Knowledge” is a collection of songs from the last year and a half that represent Anthony B.’s best output of 7” singles that were recorded in Jamaica with Bobby ‘Digital’ Dixon, Sheldon ‘Calibud’ Stewart, Steven ‘Lenky’ Marsden, Q 45, Anthony ‘Red Rose’ Camron among others. Stand out tracks include “Wine & Roses”, “God Above Everything”, “Good Cop” and the remake of the roots reggae classic ”Two Sevens Clash” featuring Joseph Hill A.K.A. Culture.