By Kenrick Josephs

Popular entertainer Zumjay is one of Jamaica’s younger dancehall sensations, a witty youngster who recently propelled into the limelight.

Decked out in a red handkerchief around his head and red t-shirt with a popular Jamaican expletive slapped across the chest, Zumjay was quick to inform daflex.net on his journey to the present.

Born Rohan Stephens, Zumjay spent his early years in the south Kingston community, Dunkirk. He later moved to Waterhouse with his family.

Like any other child, Zumjay wanted to land in a ‘popular’ occupation, his was architecture. While at Kingston College (KC) however, his decision would change. When he was in grade nine, he decided that entertainment was his niche. He would pen songs, DJ and entertain his peers, confessing that they would often leave their classes to listen to his performances.

He recognized music as his niche. He was on the track and field team at Kingston College but found his ‘natural high’ in music, and the bottom-line was he was good at it.

Zumjay journeyed to studios in Kingston to find a producer who would work with him, to help him to hone what he thought was his talent. All the producers he met thought he was just another kid fantasizing about becoming a DJ. He would soon prove than he had substance to hold his own in the industry.

In 1995, he left KC and went to Hydel where fate took course. He met with Hyacinth Bennett who was instrumental in his career path. She introduced him to her son who took him to producer Rookie from Penthouse.

Zumjay would go to the studio and hang out, ‘learning the ropes’. He met ace producers Lenky and Label owner Donovan Germaine at the studio one day and was asked what he (Zumjay) was about. Germaine sent Zumjay inside the studio to perform on a ‘one drop’ rhythm, “Everybody love di song an di whole studio mash up,” he said. From this satisfaction, Zumjay received two more rhythms to take home; he was to pen songs to go along with them.

After Zumjay left school, his mother told him to find a job so he could help with the bills. According to him she never believed in DJs making money. He had to find a way to go around this obstacle his mother had set. After much thought, he decided he would try his hands at studio engineering. Through this, he could still get to do what he loved.

He went to Penthouse and told the producers that he wanted to learn engineering; they welcomed him with open arms. This led him to work with entertainers on their songs the most memorable being Beres Hammond and Buju Banton’s ‘Pull It Up’.

Between engineering, Zumjay would record his own songs and practiced his mic talent. It was his tribute to cricket legend Courtney Walsh that catapulted him into the minds of listeners both locally and overseas. The idea for the song sparked from popular radio personality Richie B who appealed to artistes to do a song for the cricketer, as he was about to break a world record. When Zumjay got home, his mother told him about the appeal and suggested that he write a song about it. He spent the night at the studio and got help from Tony Rebel and Germaine with the song and he recorded it himself.

Zumjay went by the name ‘Likkle Bread’ but producer; Homer Harris thought that this name didn’t fit him. He brainstormed and thought ‘Zumjay’ was the ideal name, which he said means ‘brave’.

With ‘crazy’ new songs in the pipeline, Zumjay was quick to spit the words of one of his new songs ‘Sticky’ which is on the 40/40 Label. “The song is about the trials and tribulations of everyday life and everyday experiences,” he said. He has done a host of songs including the popular ‘Zumjay News’ on the Diwali rhythm and ‘Shake it’ on the Masterpiece rhythm.