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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Macka B

Artist. Dancehall, revival

Active
1986-present
Sunrise
1961, Wolverhampton, England

Christopher MacFarlane, known as Macka B, is a British deejay from Wolverhampton whose recording career began on the West Midlands sound system circuit in the early 1980s and who reached a far larger audience after 2016 through short videos about food and diet.

Born in Wolverhampton to Jamaican parents, he took his models from the Jamaican deejays of the previous decade, U-Roy, I-Roy, Big Youth and above all Prince Far I. He started a sound system called Exodus with friends, became Rastafari, and traveled to Jamaica in 1982 to hear the emerging dancehall style at first hand. A deejay contest win the following year led to radio work and then to regular appearances on the BBC2 series Ebony. An early single, "Maggie's Letter," was cut with a local band, Pre-Wax, and was a Midlands hit.

He continued to work with sound systems throughout, principally Wassifa in Birmingham. A cassette of a Wassifa clash against Saxon Studio International in Leicester reached John McGillivray and Chris Lane at Fashion Records in London, who gave him his first solo record, "Bible Reader" (1985), played heavily on Radio 1 by Ranking Miss P. A second track, "Gentleman with Manners," appeared on the compilation Great British MCs.

Mad Professor saw one of the Ebony broadcasts and sent word through the singer Peter Culture asking him to visit Ariwa. The album that followed, Sign of the Times (1986), topped the British reggae chart and began a partnership that ran for the better part of two decades, through We've Had Enough (1987) and Looks Are Deceiving (1988), which carried "Unemployment Blues." The two toured Germany, Italy and France together. In 1988 he recorded in Kingston for the first time, working with Jack Scorpio on Molynes Road.

He has remained on Ariwa and outside the commercial mainstream, and his subjects have stayed consistent: Rastafari, racism, apartheid, health and the Ital diet. His songs are, he says, "not just head top lyrics and a chorus and a punchline," and he uses humor because "it kind of breaks down people's resistance." "Medical Marijuana Card" (2016) and the "Wha Me Eat" clips, brief verses in praise of individual vegetables set over a riddim and posted weekly, found an audience far beyond reggae and remain the way most listeners now encounter him.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. The Rough Guide counts him among the UK deejays to emerge in "the dancehall phase of the early 1980s." Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 383. Campbell instead places the start of his career "on the London sound system circuit." Howard Campbell, "Medical Marijuana from Macka B," Jamaica Observer, June 10, 2014, archived, https://web.archive.org/web/2014/http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/entertainment/Medical-Marijuana-from-Macka-B_16849523.
  2. His official biography names "U-Roy, I-Roy, Big Youth, Prince Far-I." "Macka.B Biography," Macka-B (official site), accessed October 3, 2026, https://www.mackab.com/about/. Wikipedia says "especially Prince Far I." "Macka B," Wikipedia, accessed October 3, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macka_B. To Taylor he named U-Roy, I-Roy and Big Youth. Angus Taylor, "Interview with Macka B," Angus Taylor (blog), first published in Riddim, November/December 2015, archived December 27, 2016, https://web.archive.org/web/20161227204615/http://www.angustaylorwriter.com/interview-with-macka-b/. The Rough Guide hears "a gruff voice in the Prince Jazzbo tradition." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 403.
  3. "Macka.B Biography." Taylor says the Exodus sound was a neighbor's Lord Barley sound renamed by its teenage crew, and that the 1982 trip was with his youth club. Taylor, "Interview with Macka B."
  4. The contest was at the Rising Star club in Bilston in 1983; the prize was a slot on Radio WM Birmingham. Taylor, "Interview with Macka B." "Macka.B Biography."
  5. His official biography says Pre-Wax was a band he was in and that "Maggie's Letter," released by a producer called Papa P, "became a local success." "Macka.B Biography." Taylor says he voiced it for Sapphire Records in London; Macka B dated it to 1982. Taylor, "Interview with Macka B." Daisy Jones, "We Interviewed Macka B, That Guy Who Went Viral Rapping About Cucumbers," Vice, March 23, 2017, https://www.vice.com/en/article/macka-b-interview-cucumber-rap-veganism/.
  6. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 403. Taylor and the official biography also name Skippy and Lippy. Taylor, "Interview with Macka B." "Macka.B Biography."
  7. Taylor, "Interview with Macka B." "Macka B: Bible Reader," Discogs, accessed October 3, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/1632076. The Rough Guide calls it his "initial hit for Fashion." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 403.
  8. "Various: Great British M.C.'s," Discogs, accessed October 3, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/1308562.
  9. Taylor, "Interview with Macka B." Wikipedia says instead that Macka B approached Mad Professor and sent him a tape. "Macka B."
  10. The Rough Guide dates Sign of the Times to 1986; Taylor calls it a 1985 LP. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 403. Taylor, "Interview with Macka B." His official biography says it reached "No 1. in the Reggae LP charts." "Macka.B Biography." Discogs lists "Unemployment Blues" on Looks Are Deceiving. "Macka B: Looks Are Deceiving," Discogs, accessed October 3, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/819785. Taylor says the partnership yielded fourteen albums. Taylor, "Interview with Macka B."
  11. Taylor, "Interview with Macka B." The Rough Guide notes that Mad Professor "has toured ceaselessly and very successfully with Ariwa artists for many years, most notably" with Macka B. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 412.
  12. Taylor, "Interview with Macka B." His official biography names "Love It in Jamaica" and "Slow Down Driver" for the Black Scorpio label. "Macka.B Biography."
  13. He has also recorded away from Ariwa: the Rough Guide cites "DJ Unity" for Donovan Germain and "Tongue And Nuh Gun" for Fatis Burrell, and later albums appeared on Jet Star, Peckings/VP and Greensleeves. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 403. "Macka.B Biography." "Macka B." Taylor recounts a producer asking him to tone down "Apartheid" before he joined Ariwa. Taylor, "Interview with Macka B." "Macka B Speaks on Veganism, Consciousness and Well-Being," Afropop Worldwide, November 21, 2017, https://www.afropop.org/articles/macka-b-speaks-on-veganism-consciousness-and-well-being.
  14. Angus Taylor, "Interview: Macka B, Reggae Daddy," Reggaeville, April 20, 2012, https://reggaeville.com/artist-details/macka-b/news/view/interview-macka-b-reggae-daddy.
  15. "Medical Marijuana Card" is on Never Played a 45 (Peckings, 2015). "Macka B: Never Played A 45," Discogs, accessed October 3, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/7529041. Campbell reported a single, "Medical Marijuana," in June 2014. Campbell, "Medical Marijuana from Macka B." He dated the song "Wha Me Eat" to 2008; the weekly "Medical Monday" and "Wha Me Eat Wednesday" posts began in March 2017, and the rhymed verses on single fruits and vegetables grew out of the "Medical Monday" series. Jones, "We Interviewed Macka B." "Macka B Speaks on Veganism."

World of Jamaican Music: the whole map