Chuck Fenda “Lift It Up” (1999)

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Leshorn Whitehead (born June 15, 1972), better known by his stage name Chuck Fenda, is a Jamaican American reggae musician and deejay born in Brooklyn, New York City. Raised in Jamaica, Fenda is also known as “The Living Fire”, “Poor People Defender” and “Chuck Fender”. He has toured in both the United States and Jamaica. His songs include “I Swear”, “Poor People Cry” and “Better Days”, all of which are from his album Better Days. His song “All About da Weed” was featured in the soundtrack for the video game Grand Theft Auto IV.
His Lloyd “John John “James, Jr.-produced fifth album Jah Element was released September 10, 2013, on John John Records.
At six weeks old, international reggae artiste Chuck Fenda was left in the care of his birth mother’s parents. In a recent interview with THE WEEKEND STAR, the entertainer revealed that a reunion with his mother has been years in the making. “We’re trying to get to know each other,” Chuck Fenda said of his relationship with his mother. Chuck Fenda, given the name Leshorn Whitehead, was born in Brooklyn in the United States of America and raised in Spanish Town, St Catherine, by his grandparents. He does not know his father and has never had a relationship with his mother. “I have never thought it something to speak about,” he told THE WEEKEND STAR.
Chuck Fenda, also known as The Living Fire, said that growing up he watched other boys “sitting down an’ ah rap with them mother and even dem father. When I asked her about my father, she doesn’t want to speak about who he is. Sometimes I question if she can love me, and constantly remember my grandmother telling me my mother never wanted me,” the artiste said. “I forgive her because maybe if she kept me, there would be no Chuck Fenda … My life would have taken on a different path. I had to learn how to be a man, too.”
The I Swear lyricist said that the door has been opened to a mother-son relationship. “The one thing I realized when I first get in contact with her several years ago is that she was tense, maybe it has something to do with how I was produced. But then, she reached out to me last year.”
Chuck Fenda has fathered 11 children who he calls his “best friends”, and wants to remain a strong and successful role model to them.
He said that his single, Eternal Fire, is a testament to the struggles, lessons he continues to teach his children and those he meets on his journey, and a cry for justice. He said, “The lyrics came naturally out of the universe. Like Gash Dem (his popular 2006 release) they came at a time when it’s needed – the world upside down and people stressed – to speak about the conscious livity. It hurt me to hear a youth in the 10th grade saying ‘if a girl nah give me a threesome me nuh want har’; that’s a cry for guidance.”