Jamaican singer JUSS ICE was born Michael Lewis in Kingston and raised in Kingston where he attended Priory and Hillel Academy . He also attended high school in the US for 4 years before returning to his native Jamaica. His alias “Juss Ice” has been part of his identity since teenage years when his friends gave him the nickname Ice.

Juss Ice’s first introduction to music came via producer Jeremy Harding, now manager of international dancehall star Sean Paul. Ice was shown around the studio and had his first ever recording experience. The first released song however was produced by Baby G on Mighty Mike’s riddim “Yellow Tape”. The song entitled “High Grade” did reasonably well but was not promoted internationally even though ice was featured with the song in the accompanying medley video.

What Ice accomplished though was the decision to turn his love for music into a career and he started to pursue his goal of becoming an internationally recognized and successful artiste. At first Ice was djing but soon he switched to singing instead. He moved to the US again for a while and did a 14 venue tour with artistes such as Trick Daddy, East Side Boyz and Lil John in 2001. Unfortunately Ice ran into some troubles during his stay in the US and he retured home to Jamaica again in 2003.

2003 was also the year when Ice met film and video director Luciano Blotta who started shooting his documentary RiseUp, a film about the Jamaican music underground. The film documents three artistes’ career progress and Ice is one of the main artistes featured in the film and the 2009 release at various international film festivals as well as a recent New York premiere added to Ice’ recognition internationally.

In 2004 Ice performed at Reggae Sumfest and more shows in Canada as well as the UK. Ice spent 6 months in London performing and furthering his career, especially after he realized hos greatly reggae music is appreciated in the UK.

With a personal style based on creativity and versatility Ice stands out amongst the young and upcoming Jamaican artistes. He draws inspiration from a variety of musical genres from reggae to country music and jazz. Growing up he listened to the likes of Garnett Silk, earth Wind & Fire and James Taylor. Ice says he can appreciate all forms of music but personally his lyrics deal with an urban lifestyle.

Alongside his management and production team Ice is all set to change the music game in Jamaica and produce good music with positive lyrics. He works with Topnotch Music as well as producers such as DJ Kareem and Colombian to create his individual sound. In the future Ice would like to also work on some collaborations with artistes such as Busy Signal, Mavado, Damian “Jr Gong” Marley and legendary artiste Super Cat. The latest releases by Ice are his two new singles “TGIF (Thank God It’s Friday) about his favourite day of the week and “Kingston Town”, a song dedicated to his favourite town in the world, his hometown, Kingston, Jamaica.

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