Determine
Artist. Dancehall
- Active
- 1990s-2025
- Sunrise
- Sandy Lane, Annotto Bay, St. Mary, Jamaica
- Sunset
- February 13, 2025, United States
- Also known as
- Rohan Bennett, Meshak
Determine was a Bobo dread chanter of the 1990s, one of the cultural voices the Rough Guide names alongside Sizzla, Anthony B and Prezident Brown.
Born Rohan Bennett, he grew up in Sandy Lane, a community in Annotto Bay, St. Mary. "Kette Drum," his third record after "Zion Hill" and "Full Speed," with Terror Fabulous, made his name in 1995: a nyahbingi-flavored duet with Beenie Man, produced by Bobby Digital, and one of the biggest dancehall songs of the decade. Bobby Digital's rhythm went on to carry Bounty Killer's "Seek God," Cocoa Tea's "Holy Mount Zion," Buju Banton's "'Til I'm Laid to Rest" and cuts by Prezident Brown, Mutabaruka and Morgan Heritage.
He went on to voice cultural lyrics over the strongest rhythms of the day, among them "Drum Song" for "Who," "Heathen" for "Live Wire" and "Cat Paw" for "Jah a Mi Sponsor," gathered on Freedom Chant (1999). Other albums include Rock the World (1996) and Mi Go Through Dat (2004), and in his last years he ran his own label, Sandy Lane Production. Determine reached his sunset in the United States on February 13, 2025, at fifty-two, after a battle with stomach cancer.
Last updated November 5, 2026
Connections
- Bobby Digital (producer)
- Beenie Man (collaborator)
- Terror Fabulous (collaborator)
Notes
- Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 355, 377.
- Howard Campbell, "Determine Dies at 52," Jamaica Observer, February 17, 2025, https://jamaicaobserver.com/2025/02/17/determine-dies-52. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 377, on the nyahbingi flavor.
- Claude Mills, "'Kette Drum' Singer Determine Dead at 52," DancehallMag, February 2025, https://dancehallmag.com/?p=86152. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 356, on the Digital B album of the rhythm, which also collects Garnett Silk's "Silk Chant."
- Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 377.
- Mills, "'Kette Drum' Singer Determine Dead at 52," on the albums. Campbell, "Determine Dies at 52," on the label and his sunset; his son Romario "Runkus" Bennett gave the cause as stomach cancer. On the cause, Claude Mills, "Rohan 'Determine' Bennett, 52, of Kette Drum Fame, Dies after Battle with Cancer," via Clinton Lindsay, February 14, 2025, https://clintonlindsay.com/2025/02/14/rohan-determine-bennett-52-of-kette-drum-fame-dies-after-battle-with-cancer.
