Super Cat

William Anthony Maragh was born June 25, 1963, in Kingston, Jamaica, of mixed Afro-Jamaican and Indo-Jamaican heritage, raised in Seivright Gardens, a tough West Kingston neighborhood. He left home around age ten and was incarcerated at Jamaica's General Penitentiary as a teenager, but was drawn to sound system culture early.

He performed under the names "Cat-A-Rock" and "Wild Apache" before settling on "Super Cat." His 1985 album Si Boops Deh! and its single "Boops" made him a star, sparking a national dancehall dance-and-fashion craze. He became one of the first dancehall deejays signed to a major American label, Columbia Records, releasing Don Dada in 1992.

Don Dada and "Ghetto Red Hot" cemented his dominance. In 1993, the B-side remix of "Dolly My Baby" featured a then-unknown rapper billed as "The Notorious B.I.G." alongside Puff Daddy — a track now recognized as containing Biggie's first commercial vocal appearance. His career was interrupted in 1991 when he was investigated in the shooting death of fellow deejay Nitty Gritty; Super Cat maintained self-defense and was cleared by police in 1992.

Widely regarded as one of the greatest deejays in dancehall history, Super Cat is credited with helping engineer dancehall's crossover into American popular music in the early-to-mid 1990s. He remains active into his sixties, performing at major reggae showcases and continuing sporadic new recordings.