Musicians - Ras Shorty I

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	Musicians - Ras Shorty I

Ras Shorty I (October 6, 1941-July 12, 2000) was a soca musician, known as the Father of Soca and The Love Man. He was born Garfield Blackman in Lengua, Trinidad and Tobago, and rose to fame as Lord Shorty with his 1963 hit "Clock and Dagger". He was working in calypso at the time, writing songs and performing. In the 1970s, he began experimenting with reggae and Indian music, and created a style eventually dubbed soca.

Lord Shorty, as he was still known, released the first recorded soca in 1973, with his hit song "Indrani". The following year's Endless Vibrations earned him a devoted audience of fans, many of whom began performing in his style. His fame continued to grow throughout the 1970s, and he became one of the country's top performers. In 1984, then, he became disenchanted with soca, believing that it was being used for the wrong reasons. He adopted the name Ras Shorty I soon after, when he converted to Christianity and moved into the Piparo forest in the hills of southern Trinidad. In the late 80s, he began recording again, this time fusing reggae and gospel in a style he called jamoo. He continued recording into the late 1990s, achieving hits like "Watch Out My Children", about the dangers of drug abuse, which was recorded in ten languages.

Ras Shorty I died in 2000 of multiple myeloma, a type of bone marrow cancer.

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