Max Romeo is a reggae and roots reggae singer from Saint James, Jamaica. Born Maxwell Livingston Smith in 1947 and active until his death in 2025, he is known for chart success in Jamaica and the UK and for work that ranges from rude-boy songs to politically charged and spiritual reggae.

Early career

Romeo leaves home at 14 and works on a sugar plantation outside Clarendon, cleaning irrigation ditches. After winning a local talent competition at 18, he moves to Kingston to pursue music. In 1965 he joins Kenneth Knight and Lloyd Shakespeare in The Emotions, while also working as a record plugger for Ken Lack’s Caltone label. The group’s first hit arrives in 1966 with “Buy You a Rainbow”, and they go on to score several more singles.

By 1968 he is recording as Max Romeo and begins a solo career. He first works with Bunny Lee on pop songs and love ballads, but when those do not gain traction he returns to The Emotions, then recording for Phil Pratt. He also works as a sales representative for Bunny Lee and records with The Hippy Boys, later known as The Upsetters.

Breakthrough and rude reggae

Romeo writes new lyrics over Derrick Morgan’s “Hold You Jack”, and the finished recording becomes “Wet Dream”, one of his best-known songs. The single is a hit in Jamaica and reaches the UK Top Ten despite a BBC Radio ban. It stays in the UK Singles Chart for almost six months and appears on the album A Dream, alongside follow-up songs including “Mini Skirt Version”, “Fish in the Pot”, “Belly Woman” and “Wine Her Goosie”.

He tours the UK, where some venues ban him from performing, and remains there for eighteen months. His early success helps establish the style often described as rude reggae, marked by overtly suggestive lyrics.

Political and roots music

After returning to Jamaica in 1970, Romeo sets up the Romax record label and sound system, though it is unsuccessful. He records further singles with Bunny Lee and other producers including Niney Holness, then moves into a period of politically charged songs. “Let The Power Fall On I” becomes the campaign theme for the People’s National Party in the 1972 Jamaican general election, and he joins the PNP Musical Bandwagon, travelling around Jamaica on the back of a truck.

He then records religious songs before working with Lee “Scratch” Perry. That collaboration produces “Three Blind Mice”, “Sipple Out Deh” and “Chase the Devil”. A remixed version of “Sipple Out Deh”, retitled “War Ina Babylon”, becomes a major UK track and appears on the Island Records album of the same name, followed by “One Step Forward”.

After a fallout with Perry, Romeo self-produces Reconstruction, which does not match the success of War Ina Babylon. Perry responds with “White Belly Rat” and writes “Judas” over a photograph of Romeo in Black Ark studio.

Later career

In 1978 Romeo moves to New York City, where he co-writes and appears in the musical Reggae with Michael Butler. In 1980 he sings backing vocals on “Dance” on The Rolling Stones’ Emotional Rescue. The following year Keith Richards co-produces and plays on Romeo’s album Holding Out My Love to You.

During the 1980s his recordings attract less attention, and he works in a New York electronics store. He returns to Jamaica in 1990 and resumes touring and recording more regularly. In the 1990s he records Far I Captain of My Ship and Our Rights with Jah Shaka, Cross of the Gun with Tappa Zukie, and Selassie I Forever with Mafia & Fluxy. Later albums include Love Message, Something is Wrong, In This Time and Pocomania Songs.

Legacy and recognition

Romeo’s songs are widely sampled and reused. The Prodigy sample “Chase the Devil” for “Out of Space”, and Kanye West uses it for Jay-Z’s “Lucifer” on The Black Album. “Chase the Devil” also appears on the K-JAH Radio West station in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. “Sipple Out Deh” is included in John Peel’s Record Box.

His catalogue includes albums such as Revelation Time, War Ina Babylon, Reconstruction, I Love My Music, Holding Out My Love to You and Transition, along with compilations like Pray For Me: The Best of Max Romeo 1967-73, The Many Moods of Max Romeo and Wet Dream: The Best of Max Romeo. He is associated with producers and labels including Trojan, Dynamic, Black World, Island, Wackies, King Kong, Shanachie, Rohit, Jah Shaka, Tappa Zukie, Ariwa Sounds and The Upsetters.