Spragga Benz

Carlton Errington Grant, born on 30 May 1969, in Kingston, Jamaica is a dancehall musician. Grant set off his career around 1991. His friends gave him a nickname, “Spaghetti” meaning tall and slim, then later shortened it to Spragga. He worked for, L.A. Benz hence the Benz in his name which came from the sound system, and at a Dubplate recording session with Buju Banton, his gift evidently created his path to building his musical career. Buju Banton had been given four tracks for L.A. Benz though he only voiced two, he then suggested that Spragga does the remaining two. Grant was new to recording at the time so he freestyled a couple of lines which brought about, “Love Mi Gun”, a well-known tune. Many producers started looking forward to working with him like Winston Riley who then produced “Could a Deal” and Steely & Clevie, “Girls Hooray”. The success of his debut album Jack It Up had many popular singles, which led to a deal with Capitol Records, who in 1995 released his second album, Uncommonly Smooth. Unfortunately, Capitol wasn’t happy with the album sales so they decided to drop Spragga who continued releasing singles in Jamaica including a collaboration with Wyclef Jean. Two Badd DJs were a ‘clash’ album he did with Beenie-Man in 1999 and this is where the number 1 hit single “She Nuh Ready Yet” emerged. The same hit appeared on his third album Fully Loaded released in 2000. Todd Terry, house music legend helped co-produce this album. His film debut was the same year in Brooklyn Babylon and in 2001 he landed a leading role in Shottas. 2002 had 4th album release, Thug Nature and with the aim of getting into the US market, Benz recorded some duets in 2003. At the Urban Music Awards held in New York, Benz co-hosted with Foxy Brown in 2007. He was nominated 3 times for the Caribbean Urban Music Awards in Jamaica 2008. At the Billboard Reggae Albums chart in 2019, Chiliagon was top.