Born Garnet Smith in Manchester, Jamaica, in 1966, Garnett Silk is a reggae singer best known for a warm tenor voice as smooth as his stage name. A fast learner who began singing as Little Bimbo at age 12, Smith would eventually personify dancehall reggae's transition from the "bad-bwoy" '80s to the more culturally enlightened '90s. After releasing his debut single, "Problem Everywhere", in 1987, Smith joined Sugar Minott's Youth Promotion label and recorded as simply Bimbo, serving as the DJ counterpart to singer Tony Rebel, who eventually converted him to Rastafarianism. After he renamed himself Garnett Silk, hit singles "Mama" and the Johnny Nash cover "I Can See Clearly Now" set the stage for his 1992 debut album, It's Growing. His biggest single, "Mama Africa", established him as an international reggae phenomenon and songs like "Fill Us Up With Your Mercy" and "Lord Watch Over Our Shoulders" confirmed his Rasta bona fides. Comparisons to Bob Marley fuelled Silk’s ascent, which was tragically curtailed in 1994 when he died attempting to rescue his mother from a house fire. Silk's final recording sessions were released posthumously as The Definitive Collection in 2000.