Michael Prophet
Artist. Roots, dancehall, reggae
- Active
- 1977-2017
- Sunrise
- 1957, Kingston
- Sunset
- December 16, 2017, London
- Also known as
- Michael George Haynes, Michael Haynes
Michael Prophet (Michael George Haynes) was a roots singer with what the Telegraph called "a wide vocal range" and "an unusual 'crying' tenor style," who came up with Yabby You and then carried his voice into the dancehall as one of the stars of Henry "Junjo" Lawes's Volcano label.
From the Maxfield Avenue area of Kingston, he was, after Wayne Wade, the most consistently successful of Vivian "Yabby You" Jackson's discoveries. He first made an impression with "Praise You Jah Jah" and a version of the Heptones' "Fight It to the Top" for Jackson, and with a couple of 45s for Don Mais's Roots Tradition. A dub album, Michael Prophet and Vivian Jackson in Dub, mixed by Prince Jammy, came first; the vocal album, Serious Reasoning, with "Peace and Love" ("Mash Down Rome"), was issued by Island in 1980 and established his name abroad. "Poverty" (1979), for Bertram Brown's Freedom Sounds, was another high point of those years.
His far more prolific work for Lawes, over Roots Radics riddims at Channel One, brought him a wider and younger audience. "Gunman," autobiographical, about an armed robbery at his home, was the Rough Guide's pick for his greatest single track, and its riddim, Lawes's most enduring original, carried Ranking Toyan's "How the West Was Won" and Clint Eastwood and General Saint's "Another One Bites the Dust"; "Here Comes the Bride" was another Volcano favorite. He also sang on Winston Riley's "Boops" riddim, on the Stalag album, and for Hyman "Jah Life" Wright in New York.
He later lived in England, recording for British roots producers and, as the Rough Guide notes, in combination with ragga deejays over London-made digital riddims; he toured Europe until the end. He departed in London on December 16, 2017, at sixty; the cause was cancer. He had been due to perform at Rebel Salute in Jamaica the next month.
Last updated November 5, 2026
Connections
- The Roots Radics (backing group)
- King Jammy (engineer)
- Henry "Junjo" Lawes (producer)
- Winston Riley (producer)
- Scientist (engineer)
- Yabby You (first producer)
- Bertram Brown (producer)
- Channel One (studio)
Notes
- Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 164, 267. "Michael Prophet," Daily Telegraph, January 11, 2018, https://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-daily-telegraph/20180111/282368335043787.
- "Michael Prophet Is Dead," Jamaica Observer, December 18, 2017, https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2017/12/17/michael-prophet-is-dead/. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 164, 250. Bradley names him among Yabby You's singers. Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 366.
- Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 164, 167, 186, 224.
- Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 267-68.
- Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 266-68, 270. The Rough Guide says Toyan's record used the rhythm "before the Michael Prophet tune had reached the streets."
- Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 296, 302, 428.
- Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 164, 418, 422; "Michael Prophet's Funeral Held in England," Jamaica Gleaner, February 4, 2018, https://past.jamaica-gleaner.com/article/entertainment/20180204/michael-prophets-funeral-held-england-had-been-slated-perform-rebel.
- "Michael Prophet Is Dead," Jamaica Observer, December 18, 2017, https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2017/12/17/michael-prophet-is-dead/. The Gleaner says that he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and that the immediate cause was cardiac arrest. "Michael Prophet's Funeral Held in England," Jamaica Gleaner, February 4, 2018, https://past.jamaica-gleaner.com/article/entertainment/20180204/michael-prophets-funeral-held-england-had-been-slated-perform-rebel.
