Rastaboyz.com - The Voice of Reggae Dancehall (Vancouver, Canada)

December 20, 2011

Austin "Kevin" Green

JAHreign Austin Yolando Green was born in the community of Red Hills. Now as a Reggae and Dancehall producer Austin "Kevin" Green has seen the best and worst sides of the genre. As a well respected studio engineer, he has been in the business of music production for over 9 years starting his illustrious career back in 1998 at Gargamel Music, home of superstar Buju Banton, who is also his first cousin.

While at Gargamel Music, Kevin became acquainted with the techniques needed to become a professional engineer and after spending months learning and perfecting the craft, he got his first big break as an engineer mixing tracks for Buju Banton. Night after night, he did numbers of live sessions in the wee hours of the morning tweaking the sounds of Banton's "Friends For Life" album and at the same time experimenting with sounds and phrases for a possible riddim compilation.

As his network grew and the credits began to pile up Kevin made his move and ventured into the mainstream as an independent producer releasing his very first riddim called "F150" during the late 1990′s and early 2000. Soon after that it was time to test the waters again and in 2001 he released his second riddim called "Vacuum" and a third riddim called "Hypnatic" a few months later with cuts from Sean Paul and Elephant Man and a host of other big named artists like Bounty Killer being featured on the tracks.

Impressed with how talented and determined this budding producer was, Bounty Killer immediately sealed the link and allowed him to do exclusive mixing projects during his studio session. Not the only one to notice Kevin's brilliant approach to production Jet Star, one of the biggest reggae recording and distribution company based in England, drafted him into their organization where he spent 1 1/2 years working with them in their state of the art studio facilities, where many international projects for a host of artists including New York rapper Fat Joe. Never losing his love for production he later released two of his most popular riddims to date. The "Garrison" and the "100 Watts" riddims were successful projects that got heavy radio and street rotation which features Assassin, Sizzla, Bounty Killer, Buju Banton, Vybz Kartel, Elephant Man and Spragga Benz among others.

During the summer of 2006 a mutual disagreement between himself and Buju Banton led him to leave Gargamel Music after producing 2 (Jig / Nothing) and mixing several other tracks for Banton's 8th official album "Too Bad" which was a Grammy Nominated Project. Un-phased by the incident Kevin sought advice from Bounty Killer, and later decided it was time to build his own empire. After recruiting a young batch of talented singers and deejay's to form Payday Music Productions.

Bounty then added his influence to the mix by officially introducing him to Sharon Burke, the boss lady of Solid Agency. Sharon Burke then welcomed him into the organization. Since becoming a part of Solid Agency, he has released three other riddims including "Not Out" which featured his group of upcoming artists - Lando, Boom Steppa, Mental, Martina, Carlos Turner and Bad Cash (his brethren for 9 years) alongside the superstar deejay's Mavado, Busy Signal, Macka Diamond and Vybz Kartel.

The most popular artist among the youth presently, Mavado was introduced by Daseca. Kevin mixed his hit songs "Dying" featuring Serani, "Dreaming", "Touch Di Road", "No Fear" and newly released "Informer" produced by Kevin for Payday Music. In 2007 when Busy Signal made his comeback in Dancehall by introducing the hit single "These are the Days" produced by Daseca. Kevin took on the mixing responsibilities for the song. He is also responsible for mixing the hit song from Bugle "What I'm gonna do" and his follow up singles "Journey" and "Living Legends" featured Junior Reid, all produced by Daseca. Since then he has done major mixing projects for Fire Links hot new "Drum Lane" riddim. Daseca's newest act Serani, received a touch of Kevin's skill on a majority of his tracks, for example the new hit song, "Everywhere I go."

Currently residing in the Red Hills Road community of Common, he is working on a number of projects. He will firstly be promoting his "Gangsta Beat" riddim in the first quarter of 2008. He will be once again giving his young deejays "Strength", the riddim is currently being played on all the major radio stations including Zip 103 FM, Fame 95 FM an Irie 107 FM. As for his engineering skills they have already been requested to mix a few tracks for Bounty Killer's highly anticipated new album "Extra Bullet". The still unreleased "Magic City" Album by Buju will also be adding credit to Kevin's list of accolades.

He's also been on several world tours with Bounty Killer not to mention a host of local events including Reggae Sum fest, Sting, Saddle to the East, Follow di Arrow plus many other international shows.

With his career aside Kevin is also highly involved in his community as he currently holds a post as the Assistant-Manager of the Donmair All-Stars Basket Ball Team which competes in the local Division 2 league.

As with any good producer with an eye for talent Kevin has dedicated his future to the development of new artists. "I believe the youths aren't getting the right opportunities for a start, too much talent is being wasted. My plan is to open a complex for new acts whereby I could try promoting them weekly. I'm talking about a mega structure, a complex with even a CD burning and packaging plant, a state of the art video suite, rehersal rooms, 6 different studios, and my own distributions. I want to be the first major local based distributor to compete internationally, so that firms like Sony and VP Records have to come to us for music".

Most recently Kevin has partnered with Bounty Killer to build the Money House Studio which has resulted in a string of hits that have been receiving international airplay throughout the world including Bounty Killer's EP "Raise Hell on Hellboy," the "Honeycomb" riddim, the "Billboard" riddim, the "Style Dem" riddim and the "State of Urgency" riddim.