George Nooks medley

​@LeoOReggio
Like the Triune God of his Christian faith, George Nooks has been not one but three distinct entities. First, he was known as a deejay, Prince Mohammed, who rose to fame in the late 70s at Joe Gibbs’ studio. Then, just as deejays were starting to dominate, he went back to the singing he learned in church, creating a parallel career under his own name. In the 90s, as Rastafari music made a resurgent impact in reggae, he went against the grain once more – becoming a gospel singer. So when you go to a George Nooks concert, you are getting three artists for the price of one.
Nooks started his musical career in the youth choir at his church and moved on to perform at school concerts and talent shows. After first recording professionally in 1974, Nooks first found success performing under the name Prince Mohamed, as a deejay on disco mix tracks for producer Joe Gibbs, notably on Dennis Brown’s 1978 hit “Money in my Pocket”, and “How Could I Leave”, as well as “Light Up Your Spliff” for producer Prince Tony Robinson. He moved on to work with other producers such as Alvin Ranglin and Bunny Riley. His first album, a joint effort with General Echo, People Are You Ready, was released on the United Artists subsidiary Ballistic in 1978. This was followed by African Roots, recorded the following year for producer Linval Thompson. He had a hit in Jamaica with “Forty Legs Dread”, and the increasing violence in Kingston prompted Nooks to record a version of Little Roy’s “Tribal War”, now singing rather than deejaying, and released under his real name, which he followed with a cover version of Errol Dunkley’s “Darling Ooh”. Nooks would subsequently concentrate on his singing, releasing the Today album in 1981, although he reverted to Prince Mohamed in 1982 for an album with June Lodge. His singing gained comparisons with Dennis Brown, who he would later pay tribute to with a double album of Brown covers.

It would be 1997 before Nooks released another album, his self-titled collection resulting in three Tamika Reggae Music Awards, but since 1997 he has been quite prolific, releasing a string of solo albums, as well as albums shared with Glen Washington, Roland Burrell, Singing Melody and Lukie D. Since the death of his grandmother in 2001, Nooks has primarily recorded gospel material.

His 2016 album Ride Out Your Storm reached number 4 on the Billboard Reggae Albums chart and number 22 on the Gospel chart.

Nooks also work as a producer and has run his own Total Records label since the early 1990s.