Konshens’ star is rising

Dancehall singer Konshens became an international superstar almost immediately after bursting onto the music scene in 2005. As his name suggests, his music is more social commentary and observations rather than the gun, sex, bling and violence topics favoured by most Jamaican dancehall performers.

Born Garfield Spence in Kingston in 1985, he claims legendary crooner Beres Hammond as his primary musical influence, and his vocal style is strong and confident yet smooth and melodic. Konshens songs range from urgent, socially conscious pleas to sexually charged dance numbers. His introduction into music was as part of duo Sojah, along with his brother Delmark “Delus” Spence. Their single ‘Pon Di Corner’ became a number one hit in Japan, leading to a lengthy tour there, which was Konshens' first experience performing live. After the duo released the Japan-only Sons of Jah album and completed another tour, they decided to work on solo material.

Konshens began releasing a steady stream of dancehall hits, including ‘Winner’, ‘Rasta Imposter’, and ‘Insanity’. He made a guest appearance on Tarrus Riley's 2009 hit ‘Good Girl Gone Bad’, from his album Contagious. Konshens toured around the world and developed huge fan bases in Europe, Africa, and South America, but he remained massively popular in Japan, and his debut album, Real Talk (which collected many of his early hits), was released exclusively in Japan in 2010. His worldwide debut, ‘Mental Maintenance’, was issued via his own Subkonshus Music in 2012, and featured guest appearances by Bounty Killer, Sizzla and Voicemail.

Konshens continued releasing singles in addition to appearing on tracks by Sean Paul, Eva Simons, Kreesha Turner, and others.

So popular has he become that by March 2014, he became an official brand ambassador for Pepsi.

Now happily settled in domesticity, Konshens married Latoya Wright in Miami two months ago.