Natural Black
Artist. Dancehall, revival
- Active
- 1995-present
- Sunrise
- Georgetown, Guyana
- Also known as
- Mortimer Softley, Mortimer Duke Softley
Natural Black is a Guyanese-born roots singer who has made his career in Jamaica, one of the young cultural voices of the early 2000s whose Marley-influenced records first found their audience in Britain and Europe.
Born Mortimer Softley in Georgetown and raised in Linden, he moved to Jamaica in 1995, where musicians renamed him Natural Black. He worked as a welder and a coffee picker while voicing for Anthony Red Rose, Gordon Lee, Jack Scorpio, Freddie McGregor and Beres Hammond, though little of it was released. In 2000 he met Roger Grant, who was starting the Organic label and became his manager; "With Feeling" and "Bad Mind" gave him his first hits. His debut album, Spiritual Food, came out on Organic in Jamaica and Patate in France, with "Press On," "No More War" and "Rootsman Take Over."
"Far From Reality," produced by Don Corleon, topped the Jamaican chart in 2006 and gave its name to his album for Greensleeves; "Never Leave You Lonely" reached number three on the Star chart. He has lived in Jamaica for more than two decades, and in later years he moved from roots toward dancehall.
Last updated October 22, 2026
Connections
- Beres Hammond (producer)
- Freddie McGregor (producer)
- Jack Scorpio (producer)
Notes
- Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 378-79.
- "Natural Black Is Back," Caymanian Times, March 16, 2018, https://www.caymaniantimes.ky/news/natural-black-is-back.
- Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 379. "Natural Black Is Back" gives the title, Spiritual Food.
- "Natural Black Is Back."
- "Natural Mystic," Jamaica Observer, September 14, 2022, https://jamaicaobserver.com/2022/09/14/natural-mystic-20231027-1928-577870. "Chronixx Was Afraid I Would Outshine Him: Natural Black," 3News, February 9, 2024, https://3news.com/showbiz/music/chronixx-was-afraid-i-would-outshine-him-natural-black/.
