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Son of reggae artist Chronicle, Jamaica's Chronixx got his start under the name Little Chronicle. Born Jamar Rolando McNaughton, Chronixx showed musical promise at a young age, prompting his father to bring his son into the studio where he would meet reggae singers like Gregory Isaacs and Burro Banton. He launched his own career in 2003 while still singing harmony with artists like Lutan Fyah. A string of singles in 2011 that included "Behind Curtain" and "African Heritage" helped put him on reggae's frontline, and in 2012, the mixtape Light a Fyah appeared, presented by Diplo under his Major Lazer alias. The singles "Tell Mi Now" and "Here Comes Trouble" both landed in 2013. 2014 saw the release of Chronixx's debut EP, Dread & Terrible. Hitting the top spot of the Billboard Reggae Charts on release, the EP went on to spend 42 consecutive weeks in the Top Ten. Chronixx continued to earn plaudits for his music, with nominations for MOBOs and gongs at the International Reggae & World Music Awards and the Linkage Awards. 2015 saw him appearing on Joey Bada$$' debut album and performing at the Glastonbury Festival in the U.K., as well as releasing the singles "Ghetto People" and "Light It Up." Chronixx's long-awaited debut album finally appeared in 2017, with Chronology receiving praise and Grammy nomination for its mix of socially conscious nu-roots and uplifting contemporary reggae. Two years later in 2019, Chronixx issued a deluxe edition of Dread & Terrible to celebrate its fifth anniversary. ~ David Jeffries & Rich Wilson

One of the more prominent of the second generation of Jamaican roots reggae singers, Tarrus Riley made a bold entrance onto the music scene in the mid-2000s with albums like Challenges and Parables, the latter of which included the Sly & Robbie-aided hit "She's Royal." The son of veteran singer and former Uniques and Techniques member Jimmy Riley, Tarrus' music embraces contemporary sounds while remaining tied to the country's roots traditions as well as Rastafarianism. While continuing to rack up hits and awards, he maintained a focus on incorporating Black history into his music on tracks like 2011's "Shaka Zulu Pickney" and launching the youth education initiative, the Tarrus Riley Freedom Writers Competition. Riley's success continued throughout the 2010s with albums like Love Situation and a prolific run of singles. He returned to album work in 2020 with Healing.

Riley was born in the Bronx, New York, but raised in Jamaica. Like his father, he has a sweet, nuanced, tenor vocal style, although his first connection with the Jamaican music scene was as a DJ (under the name Taurus). Riley taught himself to play keyboards and several percussion instruments and began writing his own songs, many of which had strong Rastafarian and consciousness-leaning themes. His first album, Challenges, was produced by the great Jamaican saxophonist Dean Fraser and released on Yaman Records. It yielded a couple of big reggae chart hits, including the song "Larger Than Life." Fraser also produced 14 of the 15 tracks (the other was produced by Chris Chin) on Riley's sophomore effort, Parables, which appeared in 2006 from VP Records and featured the legendary rhythm section of Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare. It too generated a big single in "She's Royal." Over the next several years, his music racked up several awards including the 2007 Jamaica Observer Artiste of the Year, and an impressive four Reggae Academy Awards in 2008. The following year, his third album, Contagious, yielded yet more hits with "Good Girl Gone Bad" featuring Konshens and a cover of Robin Thicke's "Superman."

Meanwhile, Riley continued to engage with his African roots with tracks like "Shaka Zulu Pickney" from the 2011 Nyabinghi Riddim compilation. Regular tours throughout Europe helped expand his audience in the front half of the 2010s and he enjoyed a particularly prolific streak with Mecoustic (2012), To the Limit (2013), and Love Situation (2014). At this point, he shifted to a steady stream of singles, putting out tracks like "Feel Free," "Haunted," and "B.L.E.M." Finally, in 2020, Riley returned to the album format with Healing, his first full-length in six years. ~ Steve Leggett & Timothy Monger

Emerging during the latter half of the '90s, the enormously prolific Sizzla was one of the leaders of the conscious dancehall movement. Along with Buju Banton and Capleton, he helped lead dancehall back to the musical and spiritual influence of roots reggae, favoring organic productions and heavily Rastafarian subject matter. A member of the militant Bobo Ashanti sect, he sometimes courted controversy with his strict adherence to their views, particularly his aggressive condemnations of homosexuals and white Western oppressors. Yet overall, his music was generally positive, advocating faith and compassion for poor Black youth, and respect for women. He remained something of an enigma to the public at large, rarely granting interviews and keeping his concert appearances to a minimum. Nonetheless, he still ranked as arguably the most popular conscious reggae artist of his time, thanks to a normally high standard of quality control -- all the more impressive given the frequency with which he recorded. A versatile singjay-style vocalist with a gruff, gravelly tone, he was capable of both rapid-fire chatting and powerful, melodic singing, and his best backing riddims were among the strongest in contemporary dancehall.

Sizzla was born Miguel Collins on April 17, 1976 and was raised in the August Town area of Kingston of devout Rastafarian parents. After honing his vocal skills, he landed a gig with the Caveman Hi-Fi sound system, where he first made a name for himself as a performer. He cut his first single for the small Zagalou label in 1995, and soon moved on to Bobby "Digital" Dixon's Digital B imprint. However, he didn't manage a break-out success until saxophonist Dean Fraser recommended him to producer Philip "Fatis" Burrell. Sizzla released a series of singles on Burrell's Xterminator label, including "Judgement Morning," "Life's Road," "Blaspheme," "We Uh Fear," "I'm Not Sure," and the Shadowman duet "The Gun." His first LP, Burning Up, appeared on Xterminator later in 1995, and he toured extensively alongside Luciano and Mikey General. Unlike kindred spirits Capleton and Buju Banton, Sizzla's early material was culturally oriented right from the start; he was able to build an audience without any of the lyrical slackness that helped establish the other two.

Creatively speaking, Sizzla really came into his own with the release of his second album, the Burrell-produced Praise Ye Jah in 1997. Widely considered one of the top conscious dancehall albums of its time, Praise Ye Jah was quickly trumped by the release of the Dixon-produced Black Woman & Child that same year. The title track was a smash hit and became something of a cultural reggae anthem. Sizzla scored several more hits during 1997, including "Like Mountain," "Babylon Cowboy," "Kings of the Earth," and the Luciano duet "Build a Better World." This hot streak kicked off an enormously productive recording binge that lasted over the next several years, with much of his output still done for Burrell.

Arriving in 1998, Kalonji was issued in the U.S. under the title Freedom Cry, and featured the successful singles "Love Amongst My Brethren" and "Rain Shower." No less than three albums -- Be I Strong, Good Ways, and Royal Son of Ethiopia -- appeared in 1999, with Be I Strong achieving the highest profile among them. The year 2000 brought three more albums: the double-CD Liberate Yourself (which featured one disc of Sizzla material and another of his protégés), Words of Truth (which featured a bonus live disc), and Bobo Ashanti, a well-received, highly spiritual set with a stronger hip-hop flavor. Refusing to slow down, Sizzla issued four more albums in 2001 -- Black History, Taking Over, Rastafari Teach I Everything, and Blaze Up the Chalwa -- and often displayed a harder edge and a willingness to embrace digital production. That approach changed in 2002, when he concentrated on softer, mellower, more romantic material, which dominated that year's albums: Ghetto Revolution and Da Real Thing. Two more albums, Light of My World and Rise to the Occasion, appeared in 2003. Soul Deep was released in 2005, with both Ain't Gonna See Us Fall and Waterhouse Redemption landing a year later.

By the end of 2006, Sizzla released the high-profile The Overstanding, an album with hip-hop impresario Damon Dash as executive producer. I-Space returned the singer to his Jamaican roots in mid-2007. Welcome to the Good Life followed in 2011. A trip to Africa influenced two of his 2012 albums, with The Chant focusing on his visit to Zimbabwe while In Gambia was partially recorded in its namesake country. His 2013 effort The Messiah was recorded with the Bread Back production team and marked his 70th album. The 2014 set Radical rounded up lost tracks recorded for the Xterminator label between 1992 and 2003. In 2016, Sizzla released 876, which featured guest appearances by Jah Cure and Samira Taylor. Sizzla indulged his roots reggae influences on his 2017 release Fought for Dis; that same year, he dropped the single "I'm Yours." ~ Steve Huey