Biography
Edmund Carl Aitken, Kent, England. Aitken settled in America, after his family moved to Jamaica when he was two and then to New York in 1976. Shinehead has an eclectic range of influences, including the Jackson Five and Otis Redding. He began singing at 19, combining Jamaican ‘toasting’ with hip-hop styles. Initially he studied electrical and computer engineering, but entered music with Downbeat International in 1981. Brigadier Jerry was an important influence, and he soon established a reputation for his dancehall skills, mimicking, DJing, singing, selecting, rapping and whistling very effectively over Downbeat’s stock-in-trade Studio One dub plates. It was at Downbeat that his close-cropped hairstyle led to his nickname. He came into contact with Claude Evans in late 1983. Evans ran the African Love sound system /label in Brooklyn and had managed to acquire a rhythm track that the Wailers had apparently recorded for Bob Marley, who had died before...
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