Little Bimbo Smith was born in
Manchester, Jamaica. His musical career began at the age of twelve, when he performed under the name Little Bimbo. During the 1980s he worked as a
deejay on
sound systems such as Conquering Lion, Soul Remembrance, Pepper's Disco, Stereophonic, and Destiny Outernational (where he first met
Tony Rebel). Only one of the tracks recorded during this period, "We Can Be Together", a duet with
Chevelle Franklin, was actually released at the time, and discouraged by this, he returned to Manchester and threw himself into songwriting, often in partnership with an old friend, Anthony "Fire" Rochester.
Death Having signed an international distribution deal with
Atlantic Records, Silk now entered
Tuff Gong studios with producer
Errol Brown and the cream of Jamaica's session men (including
Aston Barrett, Sly & Robbie,
Tyrone Downie,
Earl "Chinna" Smith, and
Uziah "Sticky" Thompson), to begin work on his second album. He recorded ten songs and the album was nearing completion when he went home to visit his mother. Silk had borrowed a pair of guns from his attorney after his home had been burglarized, but had no idea how to use them. Sitting with a couple of friends at his mother's house in
Mandeville, Jamaica, on 9 December, one offered to show him how they worked, at which point the gun accidentally misfired, hitting a
propane tank and setting the house ablaze. Silk's son Garnet Smith Jr. has followed him into a career in music. Silk's nephew Anthony Cruz recorded a tribute album in 2013, featuring cover versions of fifteen of Silk's songs. ==Releases==