Spragga Benz

Carlton Errington Grant was born May 30, 1969, in Kingston, Jamaica. As a tall, slim youth he was nicknamed "Spaghetti" by friends, later shortened to "Spragga." He came up around Kingston's sound-system culture, eventually working for the L.A. Benz sound system — the source of the "Benz" half of his stage name — which placed him directly inside the machinery through which Jamaican dancehall talent was discovered and tested in the early 1990s.

His break arrived by accident around 1991 at an L.A. Benz dubplate recording session booked for star deejay Buju Banton. When Banton only voiced two of four scheduled tracks, the session engineers turned to the young Grant to fill the remaining slots; he freestyled what became "Love Mi Gun," and the track's reception on the sound-system circuit launched his recording career.

Spragga Benz built a substantial catalogue, including Jack It Up (1994), Uncommonly Smooth (1995) on Capitol Records, Two Bad DJs with Beenie Man (1999), Fully Loaded (2000), Thug Nature (2002), Shotta Culture (2010), and Chiliagon (2019), which topped the Billboard Reggae Albums chart. His 2004 collaboration with Kevin Lyttle, "Turn Me On," became an international hit, reaching No. 2 in the UK, and he worked extensively with hip-hop artists including Foxy Brown, Wyclef Jean, and Nas. He also built a parallel acting career, most notably starring as the character Wayne in the 2002 Jamaican crime film Shottas, a role that won him a Source Award and made the film a cult classic. On August 23, 2008, his teenage son, Carlton Grant Jr., who had appeared alongside him in Shottas, was fatally shot by Jamaican police under disputed circumstances; the officers involved were later charged and subsequently acquitted at trial. In response, Spragga Benz founded the Carlisle Foundation to support at-risk youth.

Spragga Benz is regarded as one of dancehall's key bridge-builders to American hip-hop and one of its most recognizable voices from the genre's 1990s golden era. He has remained active into 2025 and 2026, releasing the album Endeavors (August 2025) and new collaborations including "Holy Life" with Ky-Mani Marley (January 2026).