Early B

Earlando Arrington Neil, better known by his stage name Early B, was an early dancehall and reggae deejay whose lyrics had a cultural bent, noted mainly in his hits Visit of King Selassie, History of Jamaica and Wheely Wheely, the latter an ode to bicycle-riding in Jamaica.

Biography

Earlando was born into a poor family and left a promising school career at age seventeen to support his mother and two brothers. He began work as a machine clerk but within a year was elevated to acting supervisor.

Neil began performing live on Soul Imperial Hi-Fi alongside his young apprentice, Wild Apache (aka Super Cat) (b. William Maragh). Earlando supposedly earned his stage name as a result of his reputation for arriving to shows early, thus gaining the name Early Bird, then finally Early B. Early B was soon approached, while on vacation with Stuart Brown (owner of African Star Sound), by a larger sound system, King Majesty. King Majesty was the only set to play all over the parish of St. Thomas. In the evenings he dragged the young Supercat out of his yard in Kingston to the countryside where they performed on King Majesty for almost a year. The owner of King Majesty was a manager in the sugar cane industry and unfortunately was unable to run the sound system during harvest time. Frustration boiled over for "Cat" and Early B who both had ambitions to make it "big time". Their first chance came with Killamanjaro.