Daddy Lizard set to make big return

Daddy Lizard’s 1988 hit song, ‘Run Girl Run’, still resonates with dancehall enthusiasts more than three decades later.

The STAR recently visited the veteran dancehall toaster in his Park Lane community off Red Hills Road, St Andrew, where he said he has spent the past few years producing artistes like Bounty Killer, Capleton and Sizzla under his Reptile Music label.

“Me still deh bout a do me ting, nuff people think me live a Europe,” he said.

“Me still do show a yard and abroad and everywhere. Remember, our music lives, so all dem young people yere when dem inna dance and hear our chunes, dem run out and gwaan wid a bag a sintin. We still a hit the dancehall ’cause we will always have our segment inna music.”

The deejay toldThe STAR that he is now ready to put out a seven-track EP, titledLizard and Friends.

“We’ve been working on it for a while now and me want drop it very soon, so me deh yah a finalise everything,” Daddy Lizard said.

“Me definitely a look a strength from it, ’cause a long time the people dem nuh hear from me. Most of the songs a me a produce dem, and it’s gonna be a different genre of music, but nutten too 100 per cent change ’cause, you know, we like the old-school style.”

The project will be distributed by Zojak World Wide and features George Nooks, Dre Island, Natural Blacks and Turbulence.

Daddy Lizard, whose given name is Junior Lee Bryan, is among a bevy of entertainers, including Flourgon, Sanchez and Red Dragon, who attracted esteem to the community through his achievements in dancehall music during the 1980s. Lizard worked with producers like Riley and Donovan Germain to release classics likeA Fi Fly Out andBoonoonus. His 1987 collaboration Jump Spread Out, featuring Flourgon, should not be excluded, as the Robert ‘Bobby Digital’ Dixon production is still a popular one in the dancehall.

His influence extends beyond his community, as entertainers like Buju Banton have hailed him as a musical inspiration. In recognising his contribution to Jamaican music, the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation last October named a road in Park Lane – Lizard Close – in honour of the veteran artiste.