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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Super Cat

Artist. Dancehall

Active
1982-present
Sunrise
June 25, 1963, Kingston, Jamaica
Also known as
Wild Apache, Don Dada

William Anthony Maragh, known as Super Cat and as the Wild Apache, was among the first dancehall deejays to sell records in the United States without softening what he did in Jamaica.

He grew up in Seivright Gardens in west Kingston, then called Cockburn Pen, the neighborhood Prince Jazzbo and U-Roy came from, the son of an Afro-Jamaican mother and an Indo-Jamaican father; early records billed him as Super Cat the Indian. As a boy he helped the crew of the Soul Imperial sound, and he first deejayed as Cat-A-Rock.

His first single was "Mr Walker," and he recorded "Walkathon" for Jah Thomas before a spell in prison interrupted things. From 1984 he worked with Early B on Killamanjaro, the sound that also carried Ninjaman. "Boops," voiced on Steely and Clevie's rebuild of the Studio One "Feel Like Jumping" riddim, was a hit large enough to start a fashion for records about older men keeping younger women, and the album it came from, Si Boops Deh!, also carried "Cry Fi De Youth." He set up Wild Apache Productions and produced himself from then on, including "Sweets for My Sweet" (1988) and "Cabin Stabbin" (1991) with Nicodemus and Junior Demus.

Two incidents of the early 1990s followed him. He and Ninjaman clashed at Sting in 1991; and his booking for the One Love concert in Britain that year was cancelled after Nitty Gritty's life was taken in New York, a killing for which he was suspected and then cleared in 1992.

He moved to the United States, signed to Columbia, and released Don Dada in 1992, one of the first dancehall albums on a major label. "Ghetto Red Hot" and "Dem No Worry We," with Heavy D, came off it. The 1993 remix of "Dolly My Baby" carried a verse from the then unknown Notorious B.I.G. alongside Puff Daddy, and he appeared on Kris Kross's "Jump" remix and "It's Alright." The Source named him its dancehall artist of the year in 1993. Eddie Stats Houghton called his voice "a sonorous mid-range with a warning edge to it," at once "hypnotic and urgent"; LargeUp heard a "nasal timbre" and an approach of "purposely staying slightly off or to the side the rhythm." His younger brother records as Junior Cat, and Sean Paul has named him as a major influence.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. The Rough Guide says his Columbia album was "among the most successful" by the ragga deejays signed to US majors after Shabba, "partly because of his own inclination to think in international terms anyway," and that Columbia "wisely included several of his best Jamaican hits." Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 344.
  2. The Rough Guide calls him "the son of an East Indian construction worker" and notes that "Walkathon" was "credited to Super Cat the Indian." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 286. Seivright Gardens, Cockburn Pen and his parentage are from Wikipedia. "Super Cat," Wikipedia, accessed October 5, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Cat.
  3. Wikipedia says the Soul Imperial sound let him assist them "at the age of seven" at a club called Bamboo Lawn, and that he first appeared as "Cat-A-Rock." "Super Cat."
  4. Wikipedia dates "Mr. Walker," produced by Winston Riley, to 1981. "Super Cat." The Rough Guide says Jah Thomas "recognised the talent of the great Killamanjaro deejay Super Cat before most of his rivals." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 286.
  5. The Rough Guide names him "top deejay for the Stur Mars and Killimanjaro sound systems." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 302. Wikipedia dates his work with Early B on Killamanjaro to 1984, and says Ninjaman joined the sound to learn from Super Cat and Early B. "Super Cat." "Ninjaman," Wikipedia, accessed October 5, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninjaman.
  6. The Rough Guide says "Boops," for Winston Riley, "used a stinging Steely & Clevie updating" of Marcia Griffiths's "Feel Like Jumping" and "began a craze for records about sugar daddies." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 302.
  7. The Rough Guide calls Si Boops Deh! his debut album, featuring "both his initial hits for Winston Riley, 'Boops' and 'Cry Fe De Youth.'" Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 303. Wikipedia dates it to 1985. "Super Cat."
  8. The Rough Guide mentions his own Wild Apache imprint. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 340. The two albums are from Wikipedia. "Super Cat."
  9. LargeUp, polling Wyclef Jean and Lady Saw, calls "Super Cat vs. Ninja in '91" the most memorable clash in the history of Sting. "Toppa Top 10: Ten Classic Clashes at Sting," LargeUp, December 25, 2013, https://www.largeup.com/2013/12/25/toppa-top-10-10-greatest-moments-from-sting/11/.
  10. "Super Cat."
  11. Bradley names Super Cat's move to CBS among the major-label deejay signings of the early 1990s. Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 519. See also Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 344.
  12. Wikipedia dates the "Jump" remix to 1992 and "Alright" to 1993, and dates the "Dolly My Baby" remix with the Notorious B.I.G. and Puff Daddy to 1993. "Super Cat."
  13. "Super Cat."
  14. Eddie Stats Houghton, "The Making of Don Dada and the Many Lives of Super Cat, the Wild Apache," Wax Poetics, May 6, 2024, https://magazine.waxpoetics.com/article/the-making-of-don-dada-and-the-many-lives-of-super-cat-the-wild-apache/. "Toppa Top 10: Ten Essential Super Cat Tunes," LargeUp, March 20, 2012, https://www.largeup.com/2012/03/20/toppa-top-10-ten-essential-super-cat-tunes/amp/.
  15. Wikipedia calls him the elder brother of Junior Cat. "Super Cat." Sean Paul has spoken of growing up with the Sting clashes, "Ninjaman and Super Cat, and I was a fan of all those people." Sasha Lee, "Sean Paul Lashes Out At 'Slavery Mentality' In Dancehall's Clash Culture," DancehallMag, October 4, 2020, https://www.dancehallmag.com/2020/10/04/news/sean-paul-lashes-out-at-slavery-mentality-in-dancehalls-clash-culture.html. Contemporary Musicians says Sean Paul modeled his delivery largely on Super Cat; see the Sean Paul entry.

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