Clint Eastwood
Roots & Culture-Bearers
known for
A 1970s-80s Jamaican deejay who took the era's trend of adopting Spaghetti Western character names to its furthest extreme, later forming the acclaimed international duo Clint Eastwood & General Saint.
record
- Birth name
- Robert Brammer
Full biography
Robert Brammer, the younger brother of fellow deejay Trinity, began recording as a solo artist in the late 1970s, adopting the name of the Western film star as his stage identity — one of several Jamaican deejays of the period (alongside acts like Josey Wales and Charlie Chaplin) who borrowed screen personas for the sound-system stage.
In 1978 alone he released three albums — African Youth and Step It in a Zion for producer Bunny Lee, and Death in the Arena for Channel One — followed by further releases including Sex Education for Greensleeves Records in 1979 and 1980. He was among the deejays credited with shifting Jamaican deejay music away from strictly "cultural" chanting toward the more explicit, dancehall-style lyrical content of the coming decade.
His most internationally successful work came as one half of Clint Eastwood & General Saint, a partnership with British deejay General Saint. The duo scored a UK Singles Chart hit with their 1984 version of "Last Plane (One Way Ticket)," and both of their albums together reached the top five of the UK independent chart, helping bring Jamaican-style deejay music to a British audience already primed by the UK's sound-system scene.
Detailed biographical information about Brammer's later life and current status is not well documented in available sources, though his catalogue with General Saint, particularly the 1981 album Two Bad D.J., remains a touchstone of the UK-Jamaica reggae exchange of the early 1980s.
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