World of Jamaican Music

Discover artists and hear songs from everyone on the site! Log in to Spotify in this browser to hear full songs. SourcesYour Voice

An illustrated map of the creators of Jamaican music and how they are connected.

Remembering Derrick Harriott (1939-2026), rocksteady singer and producer. Read his story →

Cutty Ranks

Artist. Dancehall

Active
1987-present
Sunrise
February 12, 1965, Kingston, Jamaica
Also known as
The Lyrical Sportsman

Philip Thomas worked in a Kingston meat shop before his career took off, and in 2011 he agreed that this gave him the name; in 2023 he said the name came first, from fights in his youth, and that the meat trade came later.

He carried boxes for the Rebel Tone and Feather Tone sounds in King Weston before deejaying on Gemini, Upsetter, Kilamanjaro and Stereo Mars, and recorded through the late 1980s for King Jammy, Gussie Clarke, Winston Riley, and Bobby Digital. "The Bomber" and "The Stopper" (1991) were the records that established him, and "Limb by Limb" and "A Who Seh Me Dun" followed.

The Rough Guide calls him "rockstone-voiced," with a "rapid-fire delivery, fresh lyrics delivered in a voice of pure rockstone." "The pain must be in it man, so it sounds real," he said of his lyrics. British jungle and drum and bass producers sampled him heavily in the mid-1990s, and a generation came to know him through those samples.

He remains active.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. Asked in 2011 whether his work in a meat shop gave him the name Cutty, he answered, "Yes, exactly," but said lyrics such as "Limb by Limb" came from the streets rather than from his trade. "Chop Up: Exclusive Q+A with Cutty Ranks," LargeUp, October 13, 2011, https://www.largeup.com/2011/10/13/chop-up-exclusive-qa-with-cutty-ranks/. Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 313, calls him an "ex-butcher" and gives his birth as "Philip Thomas, 1965, Kingston"; Wikipedia gives February 12, 1965, in Clarendon. "Cutty Ranks," Wikipedia, accessed October 1, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutty_Ranks. Cutty Ranks has said he was born while his mother lived in Cassava Piece, Kingston. Michael Nattoo, "Cutty Ranks Talks Early Life, His Surprising Connection to Gyptian, and Journey to Stardom," DancehallMag, May 2, 2023, https://dancehallmag.com/?p=68681. In 2023 he said the name came first: "mi used to cut man." Michael Nattoo, "Cutty Ranks Talks Early Life, His Surprising Connection to Gyptian, and Journey to Stardom," DancehallMag, May 2, 2023, https://dancehallmag.com/?p=68681.
  2. Wikipedia lists Gemini, Rebel Tone, Papa Roots, Stereo Mars, Arrows, Metro Media, and Killamanjaro among his sound systems, dates his debut single, "Gunman Lyrics," for Winston Riley to 1986, and says he joined Donovan Germain's Penthouse label in 1990. "Cutty Ranks," Wikipedia. The Rough Guide calls him "a mainstay on sound systems since the early 1980s," describes his work for Germain from 1990, and notes records for Gussie Clarke and Steely & Clevie. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 307, 310-11, 313.
  3. The Rough Guide names "The Bomber" and "The Stopper" as "his early hits," and says the 1991 title track of The Stopper, a hip-hop-influenced treatment of the "Punaany" rhythm, "was the first Jamaican record to use the US form in this way." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 314, 317. It calls his cut of the "Bam Bam" rhythm for Roof International "one of the biggest hits of his career"; Cutty said he first cut "A Who Seh Me Dun" for Shocking Vibes and added the "six million ways to die" line on the version for Courtney Cole. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 293; "Chop Up."
  4. The Rough Guide calls him "rockstone-voiced" and describes his "rapid-fire delivery, fresh lyrics delivered in a voice of pure rockstone." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 313, 317.
  5. "Chop Up."
  6. His 2011 interviewer noted that a generation knew him through the sampling of his voice by jungle producers in England; Cutty said audiences as far away as Israel and Moscow knew "The Stopper" and "Limb by Limb." "Chop Up." On "Six Million Ways to Die," he said: "Its my voice but, you know, they used machines." "Chop Up."
  7. In 2011 he was finishing a self-produced album, Full Blast. "Chop Up."

World of Jamaican Music: the whole map