Contributed
Chris Smith

Krista Henry, Staff Reporter

A man on a musical mission, entrepreneur Chris Smith is seeking to help the Jamaican music business flourish.

Born in Annotto Bay, St. Mary, Smith has travelled the world and established his name in the music business as owner of Chris Smith Management, the company in charge of global superstar Nelly Furtado and others.

Smith is also owner of 21 Entertainment and Blacksmith Entertainment; co-owner of Motives Marketing NY; co-owner of SMC Europe, a marketing and promotion company; co-owner of Fiwi Music; owner of Jamaica Records and manages reggae artistes Courtney John, Brick and Lace, Al-beeno and Jarvis Church.

Smith also manages multi-platinum artistes Philosopher King, Fefe Dobson, Tamia, Kreesha Turner, Jon Levine and Jacksoul (Juno award winner, SOCAN award for R&B artiste of the year), among others.

Coming from a musical family, Smith moved to Canada many years ago to attend school, after which he went into financial services before switching to music. After going on tour with Beres Hammond, Smith was bitten by the music bug which has never lost its hold, having seen him produce five platinum bands. The power of Chris Smith Management was recently exhibited by Nelly Furtado, who was the top-selling artiste in the world. Smith was one of the persons who discovered Furtado.

"Jarvis Church, he and I discovered Nelly Furtado together. I was at a record company and I was looking for a funky white girl 'cause they had Britney and Christina and all these people out. As I was leaving, this intern came up to me and told me about this girl Nelstar; she's dope, she's different. So I went and I saw her at this show and that's where we saw her for the first time. We developed her for a year. Jarvis produced the tracks and I took her to the record company and here she is," Smith said.

Having Jarvis Church and later Courtney John remix all of Furtado's songs showcased an audible Jamaican influence in Nelly's music. He explained: "Jarvis, he is Jamaican, so he would use a sorta reggae beat. Courtney John does all her remixes; she remixes all her songs 'cause she always has to have a reggae remix. Funny enough, when I'm in India, they are listening to the reggae remix 'cause it's exotic." Smith elaborated that he wants to bring Furtado for a show in Jamaica, but in the meantime, she and Sean Paul are exploring the possibility of doing a song together.

Developing Jamaican music

Presently, Smith is trying to ground himself in Jamaica to begin his work here. Having conquered the world, Smith is looking back at the development of Jamaican music and sees many avenues for growth. He said, "I'm trying to meet with all the business leaders and trade commissions to say 'look, there is a void'. This is our music, our culture, this is Jamaica's biggest commercial product and I don't think we're giving the rest of the world a consistent dose of our music and culture. I want to help build an infrastructure that will help us to be consistent."

Smith maintains that his next goal in life is to establish an export system for the trade of local talent. This would include the establishment of his own management company here, television programmes, a record company and more. An ultimate goal for Chris is to establish more Global Reggae Stars, giving reggae artistes a global platform to establish themselves as sustainable and legitimate forces to be reckoned with.

Scoping hot spots

In the meantime, Smith is scoping out all the hot spots, hoping to find a talent that tugs his interest. The entrepreneur is looking for unique talent. "I'm interested in all of them, 'cause they are unique. Brick and Lace are two girls who are really good girls, Al-beeno is an albino, Jarvis is a Jamaican who has gone on to pop stardom and Courtney John pushes the limits. I like things that are a little left. I like things with a twist," he said.

Priding himself on selling the image of any artiste, Chris Smith is not going to deter from his path until he has achieved success, not only for himself, but for his country.