As a musician, Jahmar Anthony, who works under the name of DJ Jahmar, tries to honor his Jamaican roots while presenting something different. As a DJ, he crisscrosses genres, playing reggae, R&B, hip-hop, Latin and pop music.
On Tuesday, March 18, Anthony released a new single, “Top Shottaz,” which he worked on with reggae artist Cutty Ranks and dancehall artist Wasp.
They also made an accompanying music video.
Anthony is following in his father’s footsteps, who went by DJ Papa Ranger.
His dad was born and bred in Detroit. After he moved to Tucson, he was prolific in the reggae music community.
With his newest song, Anthony had a chance to work with Ranks, an artist he has admired for most of his life.
“Growing up and being Jamaican, we grew up listening to Cutty Ranks…I was able to connect with him once I started producing, and we were able to actually do a song together. That’s a really big bucket list item for me,” Anthony said.
During the recording process, Ranks and Anthony became friends.
“There are times when me and Cutty Ranks will be on the phone for hours. I’m really old school, and I love the more ’80s and ’90s reggae music and dancehall. There are times when he’s telling me stories about how it used to be back in the day and going on tour… He’s a person that really keeps to himself, but when he’s really feeling you, when he’s cool with you, he opens up, and he’s really a great guy,” Anthony said.
Anthony has created about five albums with Wasp. He flew to Jamaica to work with the two artists.
Anthony said the new song blends the new generation and old school ’80s and ’90s dancehall sounds.
The song will be part of an album that Anthony plans to release later this year. He expects to call it “The Dancehall Ranger Riddim” in honor of his father.
“My dad, he passed away a couple years ago. All my projects that I have, they’re all named after something that’s close to me,” Anthony said.
Anthony said that his new album will showcase his range as a producer.
“I feel like it really cements my status of, ‘Yo, this guy right here, he can create the new type of beats, but he’s also able to go back to the foundational stuff,’” Anthony said.
The album will feature other artists such as Fantan Mojah, Badda General and Bramma.
Last November, Anthony was inducted into the Tucson Musicians Museum’s Hall of Fame. His father is also an inductee.
Anthony has also been honored as Tucson Weekly’s Best DJ and Best Reggae Artist.
In December, Anthony toured Jamaica, and he plans to return this summer.
Anthony has been involved in music for most of his life.
He has been DJing and producing full-time for about 15 years, but he started deejaying about 25 years ago.
He began when he was around 15 years old. He started to gain a fanbase and kept going with it.
“A lot of reggae artists took me under their wings. My dad was very well known in the reggae community in Jamaica and in Detroit… I really grew up with a lot of these reggae artists. They used to come over to my dad’s house, and when they found out I was deejaying one day, they were like, ‘Yo, Jamar is a beast as a DJ. Let’s take Jamar on the road,’” Anthony said.
As a DJ, Anthony has always avoided being pigeonholed into one category.
“I’m a no- enre DJ. I play what makes the crowd move. There are times like when I play at the Original Hideout. I DJ over there on Mondays and Thursdays, and we mix in cumbia. We mix in reggaeton. We mix in stuff like that with hip-hop. There’s times when I’m at Mr. Head’s, where it’s predominantly hip-hop, but I’ll still sprinkle in reggae music. I’ll mix in Afrobeats. Every now and then, I’ll put rock ‘n’ roll in there. I don’t like being put in a box of he’s a hip-hop DJ, or he’s a reggae DJ because I do more than just that,” Anthony said.
He has opened for artists and groups such as Damian and Ziggy Marley, Sean Paul, the Tribal Seeds, Tory Lanez, Beenie Man and Snoop Dogg.
He has also worked with Safaree from VH1’s “Love & Hip Hop.”
Growing up, Anthony was a big fan of hip-hop artists such as Coolio and Snoop. He also liked the Born Jamericans, a hip-hop/reggae duo. He had a chance to work with Edley Shine from Born Jamericans on the song “Money Face (Mirror Mirror)” a few years ago.
Often when reggae artists come through Arizona, he is asked to be opening DJs for these shows. He has also deejayed for the last few years at the Pima County Fair.
Anthony got into producing by accident. He never intended to be a producer. It was a natural evolution.
“I used to do remixes and stuff like that, but I wasn’t into the beat-making, producing thing. Then during COVID, when the world locked down, there was really nothing for me to do. So, one day, my boy was like, ‘You’re touring with all of these artists, but yet you have no songs with these artists under your own productions…’ I had two friends that just kept being on me. They’re both artists. One’s name is Patexx, and the other one’s name is Alozade…I was like, ‘You know what? I’m going to try it.’ When I did my first project, people loved it. I started pulling hundreds of thousands of streams,” Anthony said.
Anthony said a turning point in his producing career really came with the song “Bob Marley” with Wasp.
“I used a Bob Marley sample in the song. They usually don’t clear samples for anybody. His daughter reached out to me and was like, ‘You know I could sue you for this.’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, you could. What do you want to do?’ And she’s like, ‘I’m not even mad about it. I love this song that you guys did.’ She’s like, ‘Go ahead and do what you’re doing.’ That was the ultimate co-sign to me,” Anthony said.
After that, he had a lot of other artists who wanted to work with him.
Often, Anthony will come up with beats and sit on them until he finds just the right person with which to collaborate.
“What makes me really different is that I’m very particular on who I record. I have to like your music for me to record you…Every beat that I’ve ever made, in my mind, I already have a vision of who I want on there, what type of song I want them to sing, what type of direction I want to go with it…I really just want to create good music that I feel stays true to my Jamaican roots,” Anthony said.
Along with making music, Anthony is passionate about giving back in Tucson, in Jamaica and in other parts of the world.
He founded Deejays Against Hunger, which serves homeless individuals, about 10 years ago.
He does events about once every two months with Deejays Against Hunger.
On March 16, they distributed soap, socks and wash rags to homeless people.
Anthony collects donations from the community and gives his money to charity efforts.
For his birthday, Anthony always tries to give back to the homeless.
“Sometimes, I’ll just go out to the park. I’ll buy a cake, and I’ll buy ice cream. I’ll buy pizzas. I’ll be like, ‘Hey, it’s my birthday. You guys want to join me to eat.’ They’ll sit down, and I’ll be having the homeless people singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to me. That makes me smile. I like being around the homeless people. Ain’t nobody judging you. Everybody’s just sitting there eating, everybody’s just laughing and talking. It makes me happy,” Anthony said.
While he was in Jamaica for his tour, he hosted an event where they fed 150 people.
“We just literally walked through downtown Kingston, handing out food to the homeless…We actually had people that got up early in the morning. We cooked curry chicken, rice and fish, and we just put them in boxes,” Anthony said.
During the last five years, he has tried to provide food for the homeless whenever he tours in Jamaica.
This year, the community really showed up to help.
“When I finished cooking the food in Cassia Park, we had five car loads of people that were like, ‘Yo, we’re here to help you.’ It was a real humbling moment to me. It made me feel like I’m on the right path with what I’m doing,” Anthony said.
Four years ago, Anthony started doing the Tucson Hip-Hop Awards, which will be held this year on Sept. 27 at the Rialto Theatre.
Tucson hip-hop artists are honored for their work and contributions during this awards ceremony.
“It’s a real grassroots thing that recognizes Tucson artists. It’s really all about Tucson hip-hop culture. Because a lot of times when I go places, and when they speak about Arizona hip-hop, Tucson is not really mentioned in that conversation… I feel we have enough talent here that needs to be showcased,” Anthony said.
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