World of Jamaican Music

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

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Everton Blender

Artist. Dancehall, revival

Active
1992-present
Sunrise
December 7, 1954, Clarendon, Jamaica

Everton Dennis Williams records as Everton Blender and was among the singers who brought Rastafarian material back into dancehall in the 1990s, a shift usually called the Rasta Renaissance.

He came to success in his late thirties, having gone back to house painting after his early records flopped. "Lift Up Your Head" (1994) was the record that established him, and the album of the same name followed on Heartbeat in 1996, produced largely by Richard "Bello" Bell at Star Trail. He also recorded for Bobby Digital.

The Rough Guide describes "a sweetly expressive vocal style wrought in the modern dancehall," and the Miami New Times a "smooth and earthy lovers rock-style tenor" over computer-driven beats. "Ghetto People Song" and "Create a Sound" work the same ground.

He runs his own Blend Dem label and continues to record and tour.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. The Rough Guide names Blender with Garnett Silk and Luciano as the most prominent of the new generation of "cultural" singers of the 1990s, in a chapter titled "Rasta Renaissance." Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 355, 361. Bradley includes him in "the new roots roll call." Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 539.
  2. The Rough Guide says he started in the early 1980s singing on small sound systems such as Master Voice and Santex, recorded "Ba Ba Black Sheep" for Danny Barclay in 1985, and "returned to his trade as house painter when the record flopped." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 361. The Gleaner says he began by winning an amateur contest at the Bohemia Club in the late 1970s under the name Babbaru, and quotes him dating his first hit to 1991. Yasmine Peru, "Everton Blender Happy to Lift Up His Head at 70 after Successful Surgeries," Jamaica Gleaner, November 17, 2024, https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/entertainment/20241117/everton-blender-happy-lift-his-head-70-after-successful-surgeries. The Observer says he became a craft vendor in Clarendon after the failed first attempt. Howard Campbell, "Can't Take My Space, Says Everton Blender," Jamaica Observer, August 29, 2024, https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2024/08/29/cant-take-space-says-everton-blender/.
  3. The Rough Guide says Silk introduced him to Richard Bell in 1993 and that Bell then issued "a stunning series of singles beginning with 'Wi Nuh Jus A Come'"; it names "Blend Dem," for Black Scorpio, which "topped the charts," as his most successful record in Jamaica. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 361. The Gleaner calls the title track of Lift Up Your Head "a bona fide reggae anthem." Peru, "Everton Blender Happy to Lift Up His Head."
  4. The Heartbeat edition is dated 1994 and credits Richard Bell as producer and arranger. Everton Blender, Lift Up Your Head, Heartbeat CD HB 169, Discogs, accessed October 1, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/3240003. The Observer likewise places the album thirty years before 2024. Campbell, "Can't Take My Space." The Rough Guide lists it as Star Trail in Jamaica and Heartbeat in the US, and says Bell produced "the majority of the singer's albums." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 361. The Rough Guide gives Bell's nickname as "Bobo" on that page and as "Bello" elsewhere. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 373.
  5. The Rough Guide names Black Scorpio and Malvo & Redrose's How Yu Fi Say That label among his other producers. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 361.
  6. The Rough Guide describes "a sweetly expressive vocal style wrought in the modern dancehall" and calls Lift Up Your Head "an interesting meeting of a strictly dancehall vocal style and 'conscious' themes." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 361. "Dancehall Rasta," Miami New Times, accessed November 5, 2026, https://www.miaminewtimes.com/music/dancehall-rasta-6346564/.
  7. "Create A Sound" is on Lift Up Your Head. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 361. "Ghetto People Song" was a single on Tony Rebel's Flames label, riding the same rhythm as Rebel's "Jah By My Side." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 355, 361, 367.
  8. Discogs lists releases on Blend Dem Productions from 1999. Everton Blender, "Lift Up Your Head (Remix)," Blend Dem Productions, Discogs, accessed October 1, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/3058858.
  9. In 2024 the Observer reported a new fourteen-song album, Can't Take My Space, and the Gleaner reported recent shows in Malawi, Kenya, and England. Campbell, "Can't Take My Space." Peru, "Everton Blender Happy to Lift Up His Head."

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