Cutty Ranks was born Philip Thomas in 1965 and at the tender age of 14, he began to work on sound systems like Gemini, Rebel Tone and Papa Roots. Initially he was heavily influenced by Josey Wales before he developed his own unique style. He then joined Killamanjaro where he worked alongside Early B, Supercat, Puddy Roots and Little Twitch.
In 1986, Cutty joined the legendary Sturmars sound system, owned by the producer Skengdon. The crew consisted of Nicodemus, Supercat, U-Brown, Yami Bolo , Josey Wales and many more. This sound dominated the dancehalls in this time, and after a while Cutty left to join the brand new Arrows sound system, where he joined up with Professor Nuts, Conrad Crystal, Chicken Chest and others.
Cutty's debut 45, "Gunman Lyrics" was voiced for Winston Riley's Techniques label and was a dancehall hit. This was followed by tunes like "Out Of Hand" and "Fisherman Lyrics" for the same producer. At the beginning of the 1990s, Cutty voiced "The Bomber" (Shocking Vibes) and this song was his first worldwide dancehall smash. The momentum continued when Donovan Germain released a series of uncompromising 45s like "Pon Mi Nozzle", "Russia And America", "Liberty" and "Lambada" (with Wayne Wonder). These were all big hits and Penthouse released a big selling album that collected all of these alongside some of the first songs from Tony Rebel.
By now Cutty could literally do no wrong as his fierce voice and murderous lyrics took the reggae world by storm. Fashion Records in London released "The Stopper", a tune that was so big that it was given one of the first-ever hip hop remixes. It became a massive club hit not only in the UK but across the USA too. The follow-up album of the same name remains a true classic raggamuffin dancehall set. Other hits for Fashion followed like "Limb By Limb", "The Cutter" and "The Builder" and many were recycled to become enormous jungle hits when the new craze swept across the UK. Cutty's voice was absolutely perfect for these new hard-edged double time aggressive beats.
Other notable Cutty Ranks tunes of the 90s include the incredible "Retreat" (Steely & Clevie), "Chop Chop" Taxi), "Cool Down" (Tiff), "Dancehall Rock" (with Barrington Levy) (Time), "Wealth" (Greensleeves), "Money Money" (Outernational), "Eeh" (Exterminator), "Four Big Thieves" (Exterminator), "Half Idiot" (with Marcia Griffiths) (Penthouse), "Live Up" (Redman), and "Looking My Love" (with Barrington Levy) (Time).
From the late 90s, Cutty's career slowed down somewhat, as befits his status as a respected veteran and living legend in the reggae business. However, big tunes still kept coming such as "Guiltiness" (with Edi Fitzroy) on Bobby Digital's successful re-lick of the Heathen rhythm, as well as tunes for King Jammys, John John, Star Trail, Steven Ventura and Computer Paul.
Cutty spent a number of months in the UK in 2002 and visited the Third Eye Studio to voice a brace of vicious dubplate specials. Shortly after he recorded the brand new track "Trouble", produced by Rootsman.
Cutty Ranks has just finished his latest album "Hard For It" that includes killer tracks "20 Inch" and "Talli Talli" with artist Kobra Kahn. Look out for more from Cutty Ranks in 2006!
