Merchant (born Ricardo Renford Nicholson on March 18th 1981 to parents Charmaine Bowen and Renford Nicholson in Manchester, Jamaica) is a Jamaican reggae and dancehall deejay.

Biography

Early life and career

Nicholson spent his earlier days growing up in Manchester, where he attended the Kayda primary school then he moved to Kingston in the garrison of water house where he attended the Drew’s Avenue All Age School; there he started singing at school concerts. At the age of 15, he moved to Portmore and attended the Waterford Comprehensive High School. While attending school, he and his pairs kept their own concerts during the lunch break beating rhythms on the desk and contesting each other lyrically. Music was always in his blood being the nephew of well-known singer Derrick Parker and living in the community of Braeton Phase two, popular known as Brixton.

2000s

While growing up in Portmore, Merchant had lots of musical influence such as Busy Signal, Bounty Killer, Koshens, Mad-Cobra, Mavado, Frisco-kid, Singer J and Indica. In 2005, he was encouraged by Indica to enter the B-mobile Portmore talent search and was placed second to Gyptian, the winner of the competition. In that same year, he performed at his first major stage show -The West Kingston Jamboree, this was a major success and after which he began recording songs. Merchant currently boast hit singles such as ”Rise Up Mi People”, ‘Badness nuh pay” and “Dance the time away” which were released in 2011.

His singles, “Jah Is By My Side”, “Nah Trust Friends”, and “Wicked So” was released on by the KVL (Ken Vybz Label Records) in September 2012, a label owned and started by Merchant in 2012.

http://www.merchantking.blogspot.com/