Burro Banton (also known as Buro and sometimes as Burru and Buru) was born Donovan Spalding the 27th of December 1956 at the Jubilee Hospital in Kingston 5.

He first started deejaying for a Sound System called Black Hoover (from Grants Pen) in 1978. There he met Josey Wales who was one of his first sparring partners. They later both moved on to the sound Roots Unlimited run by Busty and with Willie the selector as the ... selector. But after Josey Wales got shot Burro got scared and returned to Black Hoover. Shortly after however he moved on to a new sound called Hot Sizzler (from the Standpipe part of Kingston). However Burro wasn't satisfied with the sound as it didn't play often enough, since the owner had a work at General Motors and didn't depend economically on the sound. Through Hot Sizzler however he met up with George Phang who managed to get him to join the respected sound Gemini.

He recorded his first song, »Who Are The General Now« in 1981 as a tribute to the deejay General Echo who was murdered the same year. It was the singer General Plough who took him to the studio.

In 1982 Burro joined Killamanjaro after the deejay Jim Kelly approved of him joining the sound to the owner of the sound, Mr. Harper. In 1983 Jim Kelly got shot and it was a great blow to Burro Banton who was close friend with him. This was one of the reasons he decided to leave to another sound, Junjo Lawes Volcano. After deejaying three tunes on Volcanos very first night Junjo contacted Burro and told him he wanted him on the sound. He wrote Burro a check for $32,000 to join the sound. He was now a resident deejay on Volcano together with Toyan, Little John, Louie Lepkie, Billy Boyo, Lee Van Cliff and later on also Josey Wales.

During the first years of his career Burro released a couple of singles such as »Chicken Farm« (for George Phang), »Nonstop« and »Tell Me What You Want Out Of Life« (for Junjo). He also released an eponymous album (ie. »Buro«) on CSA records, produced by Junjo in 1983. Due to lack of financial backing the album never became the hit it could have been. There was also an album recorded for George Phang that never got released due to economical reasons.

In 1987 Burro left for America. While in America Burro started to work with Bobby Konders of Massive B releasing many singles. Another album, titled »Da Original Banton« was released, this collected singles Burro had recorded for Konders Massive B-label.

Discography

Albums

12 inch discos

*Sly & Robbie

7 inch singles

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