General Levy was born in
Central Middlesex Hospital in
Park Royal,
London on 28 April 1971. He is of Trinidadian descent. Levy's formative years were spent in
Harlesden and
Wembley in the
London Borough of Brent in northwest London. Levy's musical influence was developed in the area, collecting
dancehall tapes, beginning in 1981. At the age of 12, General Levy began writing lyrics and went on to form his first
sound system with friends, two years later, named Third Dimension. General Levy's first major releases were with the
independent record label Fashion Records, who signed a distribution deal with
London Records for the re-releases of the tracks he had recorded. He had earlier releases with the record producers Lloydy Crucial and Robbo Ranx (later of BBC 1xtra), but these were mainly tracks that were hits on the underground
dancehall scene. General Levy was ostracized by the UK
jungle scene in 1994, due to mis-reported comments he made relating to his collaboration with
M-Beat on "Incredible". He had claimed in an interview with
The Face that "I run
jungle at the moment". This controversy has since died down and he is now being cited as one of the 25 UK
MCs "who changed the game". "
Incredible" was featured in the film
Ali G Indahouse, and as a TV advertising campaign by Honda. General Levy briefly collaborated with Rocco Barker of
Flesh for Lulu in the band The Space Police. Levy also featured on the song "Only God Can Judge Me" by
R&B singer
Mark Morrison. He collaborated with
Madness singer
Suggs on his 1998 album
The Three Pyramids Club, on the track "Girl". Levy featured on many sound systems in the late 1980s and early 1990s, such as Java One Love, Java and Tippertone Sound. His collaborations with dub producer Joe Ariwa appear on several releases including "In the Ghetto" and "Be Conscious & Wise: Dub Showcase". In 2018, he collaborated with artists such as
Chase & Status,
Fedde Le Grand and
Spragga Benz. ==Discography==