Tony Forbes was born in Kingston Jamaica, and from an early age was drawn to music. He is from a family that is musically and entertainers incline. His mom, uncles and aunts use to perform in plays and enter dance contests in the fifties. They use to perform for and in front of some of Jamaica top politician such as Jamaica first Prime Minister Sir Alexander Bustamante.
Tony is the cousin of Winston Watson a member of one of Jamaica top harmonizing reggae group “The Meditations”. His uncle Glen Darby is a producer/promoter that has work with some of reggae top pioneer artist such as Delroy Wilson, Larry Marshall, Pat Kelly, Johnny Osborne and many more.
In 1986 Tony moved to America and became a resident in Hartford CT. Tony did his first recording in 1989, with a song call “Leave the girls them alone”, this song was made at a time when most reggae/dancehall artist were singing derogatory songs about women. Although the song was received well by all who heard it, it did not have the proper promotion to reach a wider audience base; so he decided not to do anymore recordings until he was able to do a better job of promotion. In Tony’s word, “No matter how good your material is if you can’t get it out to the masses then you won’t succeed”.
In 2007, Tony finally went back into the studio and has put together a well written thirteen tracks album titled “Mr. Big Man” All songs are written by Tony Forbes and produce by Tony Forbes and his uncle Glen Darby. The music tracks were made by an upcoming engineer Mark Walcott, with overdub by Mr. Ed Robinson. The songs were voiced and mixed at E2 Recording Studio in Brooklyn NY, by Ed Robinson, with background vocal provided by Winston Watson of “The Meditations” and Ed Robinson.
This album has something for everyone, the title track “Mr. Big Man”, touches on the ever widening gap between the have and the have-nots, Tony talks about love lost; about making mistake in a relationship and after making those mistakes asking for forgiveness. The track “Set us Free” talks about slavery, mental slavery and the false sense of freedom that we are lead to believe we have. The track “Stop the gunman Lyrics” is aimed at entertainers who seems to glorify the “Gun violence” in their songs, he remind them they are role-models and should not influence the young youths into thinking violence is something to be proud of.
I have no doubt that with the proper promotion this album will be one of the best reggae album made this year, if not one of the best ever made.
Blessed.
