No prejudice between race, Creed or Kind!
King Kong (Dennis Anthony Thomas), born the 26 of march 1962 in Rose Lane, Kingston Jamaica, the last of six children from the mother Aldit Barnas and the tenth of thirteen from the father Elijah Ebeneeser Thomas. His career started as a young child in Mr. Arnold basic School, where he allways was called for to sing. After he atended Provence All Age School, where he became famous for his part in dancing drama and singing. He left school in 1973 at the age of 13.
Then he moved with his father to "Water House" where he gained more experience in music. After a little while, they moved on to the place of his fathers birth, St Andreas. "Pinto Exseba" Golden Hill Cavalers". This was the place where he seriously desided to become a singer. He and two other brothers came togher and formed a singing group called "The Black Invaders". Baga was the leader of the group and"Benje" and "King Kong" was the backup singers. They rehersed every day on the riverside and sometimes Lidee Culture, Roco Culture, Rampe Culture and Masha Culture were on the river, doing their thing too. Lidee and Roco is family to King Kong by blood. After a few weeks of daily practise the group started to go to different studios, such as Aquarious and Joe Gibbs.
It became a turning point in King Kongs career the day he went to the famous Derek Morgan, who was doing addisions at his home for young artists. Derek Morgan asked each one of them to sing on their own and when King Kong sang, he was told, that he should be the leader of the group. Baga did not want that, so the group broke up and King Kong started his solo career. He went back to Joe Gibbs and did addision with the late Enos Macloud, famous for the song, "Money Worries". King Kong voiced 4 or 6 tunes/dj style for the late Errol Thomsen (Joe Gibbs studio), but they never put out any. Then he went back to Aquarious for addisions and recorded one song for Earnest Wilson. Then he ventured to Tuff Gong and in 1982 King Kong released his first song, "Pink Eye", produced by the Tuff Gong, Afair.
Shortly after, he went to prison on remard in Gereral Peneten, untill released again the 10. of october 1984. In prison he met the late Barley Johnson, who became a very good friend. King Kong was known as the best singer in prison and after he was released from prison, he kept in touch with Barley, who introduced him to the great King Tubby and gave him a room in Tower Hill on Tower Avenue, Olympic Way, Kingston 11.
King Kong started to work with the Love Bounce Sound System from Tivoly Garden, Kings favorite ghetto and he worked with the label Firehouse of King Tubby.
King Kongs first tune for the great King Tubby was "This Magic Moment" on the "Red Man Label" (a good friend of Tubby). Then King Kong did a song for an independent producer from UK. title "Sensimilia Is Walking" and when Tubby heard the song, he saw King Kong as a rival of "Tenor Saw". Then came "Step On Dem Corn", "Aids" and "Babylon" (a hard attack to the Babylon system). In 1985, when the digital music prevail to the instrumental one and King Tubby became the most important producer, King Kong recorded "Two Big Bull Inna One Pen" in a big combination with Anthony Red Rose. In late 1985 to 1986 King Kong moved to Prince Jammy and recorded "Legal Wi Legal", "Trouble Again", "Mix Up" , included in the album called "Legal Wi Legal" (but distributed in Europe with the title "Trouble Again").
At the same time, King Kong recorded songs for the Black Scorpio, Bunny Lee, better known as Striker Lee, Prince Jahsbo, Harry J, Errol Scorcher and many more producers. In the late eightees, he went to the United States and Canada, where he found the label Conscious Music. In 1989 he recorded the album called " He Was a Friend", a tribute for his friend/rival Tenor Saw, who died prematurely.
Some years later, he moved to London and worked with Mafia & Fluxy, Passion Records, Gossip P and Massive B. With Bobby Condor he recorded a dubplate called "Call MR Madden" in 1990. Two years later Bobby decided to put out this dubplate as a single and it became a well known hit in the dancehall scene. 4-5 years later the Fugees used the lyrics on their biggest hit ever, the album "The Score", in the title song "Fu Gee La La". But all together, his presence in the world of reggae music became sporadic.
After released from prison in England in 1996 and deported back to Jamaica, he hooked up with King Jammys and recorded songs as "Seize All Guns" and "Break Down The Walls".
It was the label Massive B that truely rediscovered his talent and great artistic skill and with them he recorded singles as "Jah Is My Best Friend", "Earth Is The Lord" and "I Feel A Joy". In november 2005, he recorded his latest album "Rumble Jumble Life". In dec. 2007 Wyclef Jean again used on of King Kongs song - "Trouble Again" - in the track - "Riot" - on his new album - "Carnival vol. II".
The revolutionary roots reggae/dancehall singer King Kong imigrated to Ethiopia in 2007. He is still touring in the west and hopefully his powerful and highly spirituel inspiration will bless the world with a new album soon.
