Known for songs like Tempo and Under Mi Fat Thing, Anthony Redrose helped define hard-core dancehall music.

He has a soft spot, however, when it comes to Christmas.

The singer, whose birthday is December 19, gets into the seasonal spirit with A Different Christmas, a collaboration with writer Hopeton Lindo.

A Different Christmas is from Feel It Christmas, a five-song EP Lindo produced for his Irie Pen Records.

Redrose’s fourth Yuletide song, it revived memories of simpler times.

“Christmas is a family tradition… My fondest memories of Christmas as a boy are when I heard my grandfather’s car pull up in the driveway, because he was the one who was responsible for all the Christmas presents,” he recalled.

Although he was born in St Mary, Redrose was raised in Spanish Town, St Catherine, which had a bustling sound system scene during the early 1980s. That circuit also nurtured the careers of Lieutenant Stitchie, Papa San, Dirtsman, Captain Barkey, and Wickerman.

A regular at the Waterhouse recording studio of Osbourne “King Tubby” Ruddock, who produced Under Mi Fat Thing, Redrose’s 1985 breakthrough song. The legendary engineer also guided Redrose on Tempo, his follow-up hit later that year.

In 1993 he had a big hit with Intimate, featuring Bounty Killer.

— Howard Campbell