Words by DJ Gravy—
A few years ago when Diplo was finishing up Major Lazer’s debut album Guns Don’t Kill People, Lazers Do, he approached me to ask for my help—he needed a few more songs to complete the project, and was also looking for an over-the-top hype man for world tours. While I ended up A&R-ing a few tracks on the record, it was when I brought Skerrit Bwoy to Downtown Studios that truly altered the course of the project and, perhaps, pop culture. Diplo was already a Skerrit fan and really just wanted to meet him and confirm that he can travel worldwide. They hit it off and soon enough Skerrit was made official frontman for Major Lazer.
While Skerrit was already touring close to 20 countries a year on his own, the attention he got from mainstream exposure stirred up excitement and a good amount of controversy. Some felt the daggering and lewdness was too much. I always felt that Skerrit makes people have fun and shouldn’t be taken too seriously. I also knew Dale to be a God-fearing Christian and, more importantly, a dedicated father who put his kids first. After appearing in nearly every major magazine, newspaper and even CNN, the dude with the yellow mohawk had become a pop culture icon and daggering, a phenom already kinda passe in dancehall, was suddenly familiar to every hipster in Williamsburg.
In November 2011, Skerrit Bwoy announced that he’s dedicating his life to God and that he was done with dancehall, daggering and the group that made him famous, Major Lazer. He wasn’t sure what he would do but that he felt strongly he had to follow this path. He soon started taking classes at Dubspot, learning Ableton, and working on some original dubstep and electro tracks. I’m sure will hear some of these soon, but in the meantime Skerrit has released a Christian “Pon De Cross” re-fix of the song, “Pon De Floor,” that put him in the spotlight. You might have caught the tune on LargeUp earlier in the week, well, now Skerrit has a video for it, filmed at a cancer fundraiser at Binghamton University, at which he was, apparently, awarded a leadership award by the school’s Dean of Students.
No matter what he’s doing, whether a party or a sermon, Skerrit will always get it poppin’. Stay tuned for more from the pioneer of Christian electro!