Craig Jackson and Kevin Blaire are the surviving members of the dancehall reggae fusion duo called Voicemail which was birthed in Kingston, Jamaica in 2003. The deceased member is O’Neil Edwards. In the beginning, the band had two additional members: Leonardo Grant and Robert Manning, all 5 had agreed to a recording career in 1999. However the latter two moved on and by 2003, the trio began to actively record. The dancehall group was heavily inspired by R&B acts such as Jodeci and Boyz II Men but their style proved futile until they changed to similar styles like Scare Dem Crew. Their first recording “Never Really Want To Let You Go” was with producer and radio personality Arif Cooper. In Spring Fest 2004, Sumfest 2004 and 2005, the duo performed and captivated the audience followed by worldwide touring. In 2007, the group’s debut album ‘Hey’ was released, with VP Records included dance party hits “Ready To Party”, “Weddy Time” and “Wacky Dip”, which were successfully completed by working with Danny Champagne of Champagne Records. Over 100,000 copies were sold in Japan. In 2008, the follow-up album, Let’s Go was a huge success in Japan as their popularity escalated. Japanese reggae singer Lecca, featured Voicemail, on her fourth album, City Caravan. In February 2010, “Dance the Night Away” featuring Busy Signal, reached its peak as the group scored their first number one in over two years on the Jamaican dancehall charts. O’Neil Edwards was robbed and shot several times by gunmen on 10 May 2010 at his home in Duhaney Park. Hours later, he underwent surgery, and strangely on 12 May, the main suspect in his shooting was found dead and another was captured in Manchester. Apart from family and friends, many artists like Macka Diamond came out to the hospital to support Edwards. As a tribute to the critically ill group member, a song titled “One Life to Live” was released by the group six months earlier. Edwards died on 26 May 2010, after fighting for his life in hospital for two weeks and was buried on 5 June. Mid August, in July 2017- the duo group returned to Europe for their summer tour. Lets Dance Now is their latest album, the project features 12 tracks from various producers.
