Tiger
Artist. Dancehall
- Active
- 1978-2010s
- Sunrise
- 1960, Kingston, Jamaica
- Also known as
- Norman Jackson, Norman Washington Jackson, Ranking Tiger
Tiger was one of the most inventive and original deejays of the ragga era, a dancehall survivor from the late 1970s whose growls, yelps, squeals and caterwauls set a style that many who followed him copied.
Born Norman Jackson in Kingston in 1960, he began as a singer, Ranking Tiger, and developed his style on the Black Star sound system, where Beenie Man and the singer Anthony Malvo also played. As simply Tiger he first registered with the quirky "No Puppy Love" in 1986, delivered in a singjay style, and the next year put out the far more eccentric self-productions "Iron Dumpling" and "Don't Parro." By the end of the decade he had been crowned "Prince of the Dancehall," and his number ones included "Wanga Gut," "Come Back to Me" and "When."
More mainstream success came at the turn of the decade with King Jammy and Donovan Germain, each of whom made an album with him: Shocking Colour for Jammy's, with "Boom Bastic," and Deadly for Penthouse, with a combination track with Cutty Ranks. Steely and Clevie, Patrick Roberts, Fatis Burrell and Robert Livingstone also had hits with him, and his own Hide and Seek label put out stranger outings still. Steely and Clevie's "When" was the most leftfield of all, dropping the bass for a drum pattern and a skeletal keyboard figure while Tiger found as many rhymes for the title as he could. By 1993 he had the attention of Columbia, which released Claws of the Cat. In 1994, before he could go further, a motorbike crash left him so badly hurt that for a long time it was in doubt whether he would perform again. In December 2003 he toured Britain with the Dons of Dancehall, alongside Ninjaman, Junior Cat and Baby Wayne, but he did not plan a full comeback.
Last updated October 22, 2026
Connections
- King Jammy (producer)
- Fatis Burrell (producer)
- Steely & Clevie (producer)
- Donovan Germain (producer)
- Beenie Man (same sound system)
- Ninjaman (toured with)
- Cutty Ranks (collaborator)
Notes
- Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 301, 339. On his many imitators, Andre Jebbinson, "Tiger No Longer Wonders 'When': Deejay Does Not Plan a Major Comeback," Jamaica Gleaner, June 17, 2007, https://old.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20070617/ent/ent1.html, where he says "I am Tiger and the rest of dem is just a copycat," and Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 342, on Zebra.
- Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 335, 339.
- Jebbinson, "Tiger No Longer Wonders 'When,'" which gives his full name and calls the hit "Puppy Love."
- Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 310, 339.
- Jebbinson, "Tiger No Longer Wonders 'When,'" which dates the accident to 1994 and reports that in 2007 he was making only occasional appearances. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 339, on the 2003 tour.
