Dutty Fridaze Promotion recording artiste Gage has built a reputation in the town of May Pen for his dancehall swagger, his brilliant rhymes and high-energy stage performances at dancehall shows all over Clarendon.

He recently recorded a new single called Boom Boom which is scorching the airwaves and winning him a legion of new hardcore dancehall fans. The witty, hard-hitting single has been released on the Wet N Wild rhythm, and the song has boosted his street credibility because of its aggressive content.

"I build that song on the spot during a clash at a stage show. All the names in it are real, they are all persons from Bucks Avenue and, up to this day, it has become their favourite song," he said.

The initial response to the single has been so phenomenal that Gage's management team shot a video last week, and another one for his labelmate DJ Face who has a song on the same rhythm.

"The video is sick," he said.

Born Ryan Douglas, this dancehall young blood grew up in Bucks Avenue where he attended Denbigh Primary and Denbigh High School. He developed a love for music during his teenage years, and that love burns still.

"Nobody in the family does music, I used to go to church when I was younger, but I was never on the choir, but I used to do the best desk thing and tighten my rhymes till I began to understand music more," the 23-year-old deejay said.

wild imagination

Once he left school, he continued to work on his craft, constructing songs in his head and writing them down in ledger books. "Right now, mi have one big old ledger book that is full, and another is half full. Mi have a wild imagination, mi write about a wide variety of things," he said.

He got his first break at 16 when he performed at a dancehall stage show in Western Park in May Pen. He did a catchy song called Nitty Gritty that earned one of the biggest ovations of the night, and based on that performance, he began to attract a solid underground following.

He continued to hone his craft, dropping his rhymes on a variety of beats, hip-hop beats, grimy dancehall beats, and even classic one-drop and rocksteady beats.

Now that he has inked a management and production deal with Faada Bulla of Dutty Fridaze Promotion, he can start to record some of those songs sprinting around in his brain.

"Right now, ah straight to the top mi ah go, Faada Bulla ah help me accomplish my dreams, and mi want the world to hear what I have to say," he said.