Tarrus Riley

Born in The Bronx in 1981 and raised in Jamaica, Omar Riley, known as Tarrus, carries a reggae lineage: his father, Jimmy Riley, was a veteran singer in the same tradition. A member of the Rastafari movement, he began recording as a teenager and has built a career on vocals that draw on rocksteady and roots, with songs that engage with Black history and community. His performances have drawn credible reviews from media in the Caribbean, North America, the United States and Europe.

His debut album, Challenges, arrived in 2004. The 2009 album Contagious, issued on Cannon Productions and distributed by VP Records, carried 'Start Anew', 'Contagious' and 'Good Girl Gone Bad' featuring Konshens. 'She's Royal' earned him CVM TV's 15th Anniversary Award for the most admired song of the past fifteen years, and 2010's 'Protect the People' topped charts in Jamaica and across the Caribbean. Love Situation, his 2014 album made with saxophonist Dean Fraser, gave him his first number-one on the Billboard Reggae Albums chart. In 2020 'Lighter', recorded with Rvssian and Shenseea, became one of his biggest hits in the Caribbean and Jamaica.