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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Pinchers

Artist. Dancehall

Active
1985-present
Sunrise
May 5, 1965, Kingston, Jamaica

Pinchers (born Delroy Thompson) is a dancehall singer whose run of hits between 1986 and the early 1990s put a melodic voice on top of digital riddims at a time when the deejays had the form largely to themselves.

He made one album as a teenager for Blue Trac Records and spent a short period in Britain in 1985. His first records came the following year through King Jammy, beginning with "Borrow No Gun" and continuing with "Eat Man" and "Jailhouse Hot." The breakthrough was "Agony" in 1987, a Jammy production issued as a single and as an album of the same name. In the same year he cut "Mass Out" for Philip "Fatis" Burrell, backed by Sly and Robbie, Jackie Mittoo, and Robbie Lyn. The Rough Guide hears a "gospel wail" there, and writes that what he "lacked in vocal finesse was more than made up for in panache and enthusiasm." "Lift It Up Again," a celebration of the sound-system dance, was a sizeable local hit for Burrell's Vena label the same year. He also recorded for Donovan Germain, whose Penthouse later collected those sides in its Flashback series.

"Bandelero" came in 1991 and is the record he is known by; it was used two decades later in the film Shottas. "Carpenter," "Send Another One Come," and "Venti Uno," a combination with Bounty Killer, carried him through the middle 1990s. In January 2015 he was wounded in the arm in a shooting in which the lives of two other men were taken. His son Kemar Thompson records as Jr. Pinchers and as Noncowa.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. The Rough Guide calls him "the more eccentric stylist" at Jammy's, "with his tongue-twisting lyrics." Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 299.
  2. "Pinchers," Wikipedia, accessed October 5, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinchers, citing Colin Larkin. Discogs dates the Blue Trac album, "Can't Take the Pressure," to 1986. "Pinchers - Can't Take The Pressure," Discogs, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/master/413533.
  3. "Pinchers," Wikipedia. "Borrow No Gun" appears on a 1987 Jammy's compilation. "Various - Double Twin Spin Volume 1," Discogs, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/master/209366. The Rough Guide describes the "Mass Out" album as "the singer's best work prior to his sojourn with Jammy's," which suggests a different order. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 281.
  4. The Rough Guide counts the Jammy-produced "Agony" among the "close relations of 'Sleng Teng'" that were "massive hits." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 295. "Pinchers - Agony," Discogs, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/master/607917.
  5. "Pinchers - Mass Out," Discogs, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/3492344 (Vena, 1987), which also credits Tony "Asher" Brissett and Daniel "Axeman" Thompson. On the Vena sides, Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 280, 362.
  6. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 281.
  7. Katz calls it one of Burrell's "most successful releases." David Katz, "Philip 'Fatis' Burrell Obituary," Guardian, December 6, 2011, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/dec/06/philip-fatis-burrell.
  8. "Pinchers - Penthouse Flashback Series," Discogs, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/9931693 (2013).
  9. The Rough Guide calls it "arguably the reggae hit of 1991, and certainly his most popular since 'Agony'." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 300; see also 299. The Jammy's single and album are dated 1991. "Pinchers - Bandelero," Discogs, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/master/250647; "Pinchers - Bandelero," Discogs, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/master/319504. On "Shottas," "Pinchers," Wikipedia.
  10. "Pinchers," Wikipedia. For the Bounty Killer combination, issued as "Twenty One," "Bounty Killer & Pinchers - Twenty One," Discogs, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/5234907.
  11. Police reported that he was shot in the right arm in Queensborough, Kingston, and that two men died. "Reggae Singer Pinchers Injured, Two Killed in Shooting Incident," Dancehallreggaeworld, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.dancehallreggaeworld.com/reggae-singer-pinchers-injured-two-killed-in-shooting-incident.html. Wikipedia, citing the Jamaica Observer, says the left arm. "Pinchers," Wikipedia.
  12. "Kemar Thompson," Wikipedia, accessed October 5, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kemar_Thompson.

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