Yellowman
Winston Foster, born in 1956 with albinism, was abandoned by his parents and raised in various orphanages in Jamaica—first Maxfield Children's Home, then Alpha Boys School. Albinos were called "dundus"—"ghost person"—and he faced constant discrimination. As a child, when people tried to give him trouble, he sang to them. "It's better to make somebody happy than upset," he told Thrasher Magazine. He finished second in the 1978 Tastee Talent Contest, won it in 1979, and by the early eighties was the biggest name in dancehall with his slackness lyrics and rapid-fire toasting style. A 1982 skin cancer diagnosis—doctors gave him three years to live—led to years of surgeries, culminating in the removal of half his lower left jaw in 1986. He returned to the stage in 1987, face permanently disfigured but voice intact, surviving and thriving through the 1980s and beyond. "I don't think about stress. I don't think about negative things. I'm always thinking the positive around me, good thing. I always move forward."
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Mister Yellowman
Debut studio album establishing Yellowman's slackness style and proving dancehall's commercial viability on an international scale. Released in 1982, the same year he received his skin cancer diagnosis and doctors gave him three years to live, the album made him the biggest name in dancehall and demonstrated that explicit, funny, unrepentant lyrics could find a global audience.
Zungguzungguguzungguzeng
Title track became one of the most sampled dancehall riddims ever, used by KRS-One for Boogie Down Productions' "Remix for P Is Free" in 1987 and by The Notorious B.I.G. for Junior M.A.F.I.A.'s "Player's Anthem" in 1995. The riddim's influence extended across hip-hop, demonstrating dancehall's impact on American rap production.