Anthony Henry – a.k.a. “Tippa Irie” – emerged from England’s Saxon Sound International – the star-studded travelling sound system that has been at the forefront of the U.K. reggae dancehall scene for the past 25 years and helped launch the careers of artists such as Maxi Priest, Papa Levi and Smiley Culture. Tippa Irie was part of the new generation of British MC’s who developed the ‘Fast Talking’ style chat which today can be heard in modern day rappers like Busta Rhymes.
Tippa toured extensively with his friend and long-time sparring partner, Pato Banton, throughout the Eighties including an appearance at Jamaica’s Reggae Sunsplash and their US debut tours together. The UK DJ duo of Tippa Irie and Pato Banton had become one of the genres favourite combinations. As the Nineties began, the dynamic duo pursued their solo careers.
Tippa Irie has produced fifteen albums to date and has a string of number 1 hit songs to his credit including “Hey Mama” with the Black Eyed Peas, “Hello Darling”, “Raggamuffin Girl” (featuring Peter Hunnigale), “Stress” (featuring Lloyd Brown), “Superwoman” (featuring Winsome), “Baby I’ve Been Missing You” (featuring Janet Lee Davis), “Sensi” feat the Long Beach Dub AllStars and “Shouting for the Gunners”–a song originally recorded for the Arsenal Football Team which reached the Top 30 status on the British pop charts.
To this day, Tippa Irie remains one of the most requested Reggae entertainers internationally. The surviving members of Sublime made sure their Long Beach Dub All Stars debut for Dreamworks Records had the necessary dancehall credentials by commissioning Tippa Irie to contribute “Sensi” on their ‘Right Back'(1999) CD and be their special guest on their subsequent North American tour. In 2000 he was invited to support UB40 on their sold-out Labour of Love III UK tour. Later Tippa was called back in the studio with Long Beach Dub All Stars to record “Life Goes On” featuring Half Pint and Jurassic Five’s Charli2na on LBDA’s ‘Wonders of the World'(2001) CD for Dreamworks Records.
Impressed with Tippa’s rapid-fire lyrical arsensal, Jurassic Five asked Tippa to record together and the end result was a wicked Tippa and Charli2na combination entitled “The Struggle”. The rap world took notice and soon enough Tippa was once again summoned to record with some of the music industry’s biggest stars. Most recently Tippa was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Rap Song category for his collaboration with Black Eyed Pea’s Will-I-Am on “Hey Mama”, a track featured on the international chartbusting ‘Elephunk'(2004) CD on A&M/Interscope Records and also on the Black Eyed Peas LP ‘Monkey Business’ (2005) on the track Dum Diddley.
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