Born Reanno Gordon on January 1982 in St. Ann’s Jamaica. Reanno stage name “Busy Signal” grew up in Brown’s Town as a child and was a student of Browns Town Comprehensive High School where he completed his levels with good grades. Eventually Busy and his mother moved out of the country only to live in crime ridden areas such as Tivoli Gardens, Papine and Spanish Town. Despite moving around the inner city Busy kept his head up high and stayed focused on his life time goal, to be one of the best Jamaican Dancehall Dj’s. Ever since he could remember music was his passion and knew instinctively that he was going to be famous.
Busy Signal was raised by his mother as a child along side three brothers and one sister. Busy’s mother played a very import role in his life by keeping him away the temptations young black males face in Jamaica by bringing him to a Christian church a couple times a week. Busy music talent was first noticed when he opened his mouth to sing one of the church hymns a star was born. People in the church noticed that his great lungsand was able to hit cords with such precise power. After on of his own versions of a the typical church hymns the church congregation gave him a standing ovation that put a smile on his face.
When most young kids get lunch money from there parents they buy food. As for Busy Signal he went straight to the music store to pick a variety of cassette tapes from Supercat to Celine Dion. With a good voice and ear for music he was able to understand the beauty of all types of music genres. As for the American market he was picking up Jay-Z, Eminem and Whitney Houston and any new release that hit the streets in Jamaica. His love for music didn’t stop him from getting in trouble in class by making beats on his desk and sneaking out of his house with out anybody knowing to listen to Deejay’s blast beats from there sound systems.
As time went on and the passion for music was still in his veins Busy Signal was able to make contacts with several sound systems in dreams of reaching the stars to become a recording DJ. Through hard work he was able to do dub plates for Renaissance and Kilimanjaro that got his foot in the door. It wasn’t until Busy hooked up with sound engineer from Renaissance named “Fatta” who helped guide him through the right steps in order to be an artist. Busy was doing everything he could to record all the new information about music cords, breath control, metaphor and word play. All this was quite new for young busy but it still didn’t stop him from what he truly wanted to become. Busy Signal went to the US for some short time where he got locked up for conspiracy. He was able to get his act together and stick only to music. His hit song “Jail” was his own depiction of how he saw prison life.
Time went on and so did his drive. Busy Signal finally got lucky and tested out his talent during his very first single “Shake It Fast“, on the Tunda Clap Riddim. That was a start but it wasnt until the year 2005 when Busy was now going to be known across Jamaica over night with his hit song “Step Out”. His unique voice had everybody wanting more. Thanks to Bounty Killer he let Busy preform his talent in front of a huge audience in Kingston. Bounty Killer and Busy became business partners and joined “The Alliance” that helped grow his career.
Busy Signal got his name from never picking up his phone and avoiding people. His friends and family would get frustrated when they would call and get a busy signal. Busy works very hard in the studio and focuses on new beats and notes that is unheard on in Dancehall. People used to laugh at him when he played Opera in the studio to pick up on sounds that he was unfamiliar too so he can use them on his songs. He also loved old school American R & B artists “The Commodores” where he sampled the song “Night Shift”. He also used “One More Night” from Phil Collins 2009 that turned out to be a huge success.
More info:
VIDEO: