Born in
Wolverhampton to Jamaican parents, as a child Macka B was influenced by the reggae of the Lord Barley sound-system playing at a blues party next to his parents' house; he also played violin and sang in the choir at school. He went on to take a technical apprenticeship at the
Ever Ready factory. When the factory closed and he was laid off, he began to devote more time to practising his toasting skills, influenced by earlier Jamaican toasters
U-Roy,
I-Roy,
Big Youth, and especially
Prince Far I. His 1982 trip to Jamaica galvanised his commitment to toasting and the following year he won a DJing competition. He had a weekly slot on the television programme
Ebony in 1984. Around the same time, a tape of his performance in a sound-system battle between the Jah Wasifa sound system and
Saxon Studio International ended up with
Fashion Records in London. The record label gave Macka B the opportunity to record his first solo single, "Bible Reader", which was released in 1985, the first of three singles for the label. Further television exposure followed on the ITV programme
Club Mix. In 1990 he appeared at the 'Solidarity' concert in
Poland, along with
the Twinkle Brothers.
Roots & Culture (1999) mixed Macka B's hits with previously unreleased material. In 2004 he signed to the Jet Star label (Charm) label. He also became the first Reggae artist to tour the former Yugoslavia (Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia). In 2012, he appeared as a special guest star on the track
Jadna ja (
Poor me) by the Serbian folk-world music-rock band
Zlatopis. He has toured and performed around the world since the 1980s alone and with other reggae stars such as
Burning Spear,
U-Roy,
The Wailers,
Lee Perry and many others. ==Personal life==