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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Winston McAnuff

Artist. Reggae

Active
1978-present
Sunrise
1957, Manchester, Jamaica

Winston Boyd McAnuff, who records as Electric Dread, is a singer and songwriter whose career divides into a Jamaican roots period, a silence of roughly fifteen years, and a second life built in France.

He was born in Manchester parish into a family of preachers and grew up in Christiana, learning to sing in church. One of his great-grandfathers was Scottish, a line he traveled to Scotland in 2014 to trace. He recorded Pick Hits to Click in 1978 and "What the Man 'a' Deal Wid" in 1980, which carries "Hypocrites & Parasites," the record he is still best known for at home; the Fatman Riddim Section cut the dub on the flip.

His best-known composition went out under another name. He wrote and recorded "Malcolm X" for Joe Gibbs, who declined to release it and had Earl Sixteen cut it instead; it passed afterward to Dennis Brown, whose version on Visions of Dennis Brown is the one that sold. In 2013 McAnuff went to law against Greensleeves, which had registered the song as co-written by Brown.

A third album, Electric Dread, appeared in 1986, after which he stopped recording. None of his work had been issued outside Jamaica until the French label Makasound released the first two albums and the compilation Diary of the Silent Years in 2002. That reissue restarted his career, and almost all of his work since has been made with French musicians: A Drop (2005) and A Bang (2011) with the keyboardist Camille Bazbaz, Paris Rockin' (2006), the Nostradamus concept album (2008), and A New Day (2013) and Big Brothers (2018) with Fixi of the band Java; one review of A New Day heard "a fine, relaxed and soulful voice." In 2014 A New Day was nominated for a Victoire de la Musique as world music album of the year. He sang on Danakil's Les Échos du Temps (2011) and joined the Inna de Yard collective for The Soul of Jamaica (2017).

His son Matthew McAnuff, who had an international hit with "Be Careful," appeared alongside him on that Danakil track and his life was taken in a street fight on August 22, 2012. His son Rashaun "Kush" McAnuff drums and sings with Uprising Roots and is also part of Inna de Yard.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. McAnuff told Peter I that he was born "in a little place called Spaulding Hospital, near Christiana," that both his parents were preachers, and that he started singing in the New Testament Church of God. Peter I, "Winston McAnuff Interview: Electric Dread," Reggae Vibes, November 26, 2018 (interview of January 2003), https://www.reggae-vibes.com/articles/2018/11/winston-mcanuff-interview/.
  2. Wikipedia, citing the Daily Record (2014). "Winston McAnuff," Wikipedia, accessed October 5, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_McAnuff.
  3. Pick Hits to Click, produced by Derrick Harriott, appeared on Crystal in 1978. "Winston McAnuff - Pick Hits To Click," Discogs, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/4265082. McAnuff dated it to 1977, placed "Hypocrites & Parasites" on his Inner Circle album, and Peter I credits the album's rhythms to "the Inner Circle/Fatman Riddim Section." Peter I, "Winston McAnuff Interview."
  4. McAnuff's own account differs in detail: Flabba Holt heard him play the song at Joe Gibbs's; when his own vocal "wasn't up to standard" he brought in Earl Sixteen; Gibbs and Errol Thompson then "gave the song to Dennis Brown" without his knowledge; and Earl Sixteen's cut was the one Derrick Harriott later released. Peter I, "Winston McAnuff Interview." Wikipedia gives the version in the bio. "Winston McAnuff."
  5. Wikipedia, citing Carl Gilchrist, "Greensleeves, McAnuff Battle over Song," Jamaica Gleaner, November 3, 2013. "Winston McAnuff."
  6. Peter I notes the Makasound reissues of Diary of the Silent Years and the 1980 album. Peter I, "Winston McAnuff Interview." On the third album (1986), "Winston McAnuff."
  7. "Winston McAnuff." "Winston McAnuff and Fixi: A New Day Review," via Inkl, accessed November 5, 2026, https://inkl.com/news/winston-mcanuff-fixi-a-new-day-review.
  8. "Victoires de la musique 2014: les nominés," VL Media, February 13, 2014, https://vl-media.fr/victoires-de-la-musique-2014-les-nomines/.
  9. Matthew McAnuff is credited on "Media." "Danakil - Echos Du Temps," Discogs, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/3262012. On The Soul of Jamaica, "Inna De Yard - The Soul Of Jamaica," Discogs, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/9947954.
  10. United Reggae reports that he was killed on the morning of Wednesday, August 22, in St. James, after a dispute "which turned physical," and that he was best known for "Be Careful" with the Inna di Yard Allstars. "R.I.P. Matthew McAnuff," United Reggae, August 2012, http://unitedreggae.com/news/n1390/082312/r-i-p-matthew-mcanuff.
  11. United Reggae names Rashaun "Kush" McAnuff "of the Uprising Roots Band." "R.I.P. Matthew McAnuff."

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