O'Neil Bryan (born 11 September 1975), better known by his stage name Elephant Man, is a Jamaican

dancehall Dancehall is a genre of Jamaican popular music that originated in the late 1970s. Initially, dancehall was a more sparse version of reggae than the roots reggae, roots style, which had dominated much of the 1970s.Barrow, Steve & Dalton, Peter (2 ...

musician, having formerly been a member of the dancehall group Scare Dem Crew prior to his solo career.

Family and relationships

Elephant Man is a father to at least 38 children. His first biological child was born when he was 17 years old. In a February 2012 interview with Winford Williams of OnStage, he claimed to have had 20 different baby mothers at the time. Other children such as Ashanti Bryan aka Jeniun (formerly Ele-Trunk), claims Elephant Man disowned him and others - which possibly put the number of children O'Neil Bryan has to over 40.

Career

He started out his musical career in 1995 as a member of the Scare Dem Crew, later continuing as a solo artist. He was later characterised for several trademarks, such as his dyed yellow-orange hair, his unique low-key voice, and his stage performance, which included jumping and running, or even climbing on stage props and monitors. His acoustic trademark is a low, raspy grumble singing voice and light lisp. Bryan had his first international recognition when he and Puma settled a contract for using his single "All Out" for its Olympics commercial campaign in 2004. His song "Willie Bounce" appeared on several mixtapes in early 2006. It used the first few bars from "

I Will Survive "I Will Survive" is a song recorded by American singer Gloria Gaynor, released in October 1978 by Polydor Records as the second single from her sixth album, ''Love Tracks (Gloria Gaynor album), Love Tracks'' (1978). It was written by Freddie Pe ...

" by

Gloria Gaynor Gloria Fowles (born September 7, 1943), known professionally as Gloria Gaynor, is an American singer, best known for the disco era hits "I Will Survive" (1978), "I Have a Right, Let Me Know (I Have a Right)" (1979), "I Am What I Am (Broadway mus ...

. "Willie Bounce" has been described as one of Elephant Man's most recognisable songs, with the corresponding dance still enjoying popularity as of 2015. Bryan signed with New York-based label

Bad Boy Records Bad Boy Entertainment, doing business as Bad Boy Records, is an American independent record label. The label was founded in 1993 by rapper and record producer Sean Combs. During the mid-1990s, the label signed hip-hop and contemporary R&B, R&B a ...

and released ''Let's Get Physical'' on 6 November 2007. The first single was called "Five-O" and featured

Wyclef Jean Nel Ust Wyclef Jean ( ; born October 17, 1969) is a Haitian rapper, singer, and record producer. Born in Haiti, Jean emigrated to the Northeastern United States, United States as a child. He gained fame as a founding member of the Fugees, a Ne ...

. Another track on the album featured Diddy and

Busta Rhymes Trevor George Smith Jr. (born May 20, 1972), known professionally as Busta Rhymes, is an American rapper, singer and actor. Chuck D of Public Enemy gave him the moniker Busta Rhymes, after National Football League, NFL and Canadian Football Lea ...

, and it was produced by Cipha Sounds and Solitair. Many of Elephant Man's songs are found on various ''Riddim Driven'' albums by VP Records and Greensleeves Records's Rhythm Album series. He performed on popular

riddim In Jamaican dancehall music, a riddim is the instrumental accompaniment to a song and is synonymous with the rhythm section. Jamaican music genres that use the term consist of the ''riddim'' plus the ''voicing'' (vocal part) sung by the deeja ...

s such as "

Diwali Diwali (), also called Deepavali (IAST: ''Dīpāvalī'') or Deepawali (IAST: ''Dīpāwalī''), is the Hindu festival of lights, with variations celebrated in other Indian religions such as Jainism and Sikhism. It symbolises the spiritual v ...

", "Coolie", "Stepz", and "Bubble Up". The Gully Creeper dance, for which Bryan created a song, was danced by

Usain Bolt Usain St. Leo Bolt (; born 21 August 1986) is a Jamaican retired sprinter who is widely regarded as the greatest sprinter of all time. He is an eight-time Olympic gold medalist and the world record holder in the 100 metres, 200 metres, ...

at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

in Beijing after winning the gold medal and breaking a world record in the 200 meter sprint. In 2009, Elephant Man released a cover of the song "

We Are The World "We Are the World" is a charity single recorded by the supergroup USA for Africa in 1985. It was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie and produced by Quincy Jones for the album '' We Are the World''. With sales in excess of 20 milli ...

" in tribute to

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Michael Jackson, one of the most culturally significan ...

Legal issues

Bryan has been criticised for his lyrics calling for violence against gay people. In 2003, British

LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...

group

OutRage! OutRage! was a British political group focused on lesbian and gay rights. Founded in 1990, the organisation ran for 21 years until 2011. It described itself as "a broad based group of queers committed to radical, non-violent protest, non-viol ...

called for the arrest and prosecution of several dancehall stars including Elephant Man,

Bounty Killer Rodney Basil Price OD (born 12 June 1972), known as Bounty Killer, is a Jamaican reggae and dancehall deejay. AllMusic describes him as "one of the most aggressive dancehall stars of the '90s, a street-tough rude boy with an unrepentant fl ...

and

Beenie Man Moses Anthony Davis OD (born 22 August 1973), professionally known as Beenie Man, is a Jamaican dancehall deejay. His awards include DJ of the Year Award eight years in a row. His twelfth studio album '' Art and Life'' received a Grammy Award ...

for violation of hate crimes statutes. In 2004, he was dropped from the

MOBO Awards The MOBO Awards (Music of Black Origin, also known as the MOBOs) are an annual British music award presentation honouring achievements in " music of black origin", including hip hop, grime, UK Drill, R&B, soul, reggae, jazz, gospel, and Ba ...

. Since then pressure from his record company and agreement with gay rights groups to avoid songs with lyrics deemed to incite homophobic violence have allowed him to perform in the UK. In 2009, his scheduled appearance at Toronto's

Caribana The Toronto Caribbean Carnival, formerly and affectionately known as Caribana, is a festival of Caribbean culture and traditions held each summer in the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is a pan-Caribbean Carnival event and has been billed ...

festival was cancelled for similar reasons. A concert in Munich was cancelled in February 2015 after LGBT rights groups had asked the police to make sure he would not perform songs which call upon people to murder gays. In January 2012, Bryan was arrested and charged with the rape and grievous sexual assault of a 31-year-old woman who accused him of assaulting her in his home in St. Andrew. In February 2016, the case was dropped due to the death of the complainant. In March 2020, Jamaican authorities charged Elephant Man after it was alleged that he intentionally failed to declare his travel to Germany in order to avoid being quarantined in efforts to prevent the spread of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

from countries that were on a restricted travel list. Elephant Man later apologised for the incident.

Discography

Albums

* 2000: ''Comin' 4 You'' * 2001: ''Log On'' * 2002: ''Higher Level'' * 2003: ''Good 2 Go'' * 2007: ''Monsters of Dancehall'' * 2008: '' Let's Get Physical'' * 2011: ''Dance & Sweep'' * TBA: ''Out of Control''

Video game appearances

Elephant Man is a playable character in the 2004 video game '' Def Jam: Fight for NY''.

References

External links

*
Interview
11 April 2007 on

BBC Radio 1Xtra BBC Radio 1Xtra is a British digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It broadcasts Black music and urban music, including hip hop and R&B and is a sister station to Radio 1. Launching at 18:00 on 16 August 2002, it had been ...

; 64 minutes. (

RealPlayer RealPlayer, formerly RealAudio Player, RealOne Player and RealPlayer G2, is a cross-platform media player (software), media player app, developed by RealNetworks. The media player is compatible with numerous container file formats of the multimed ...

) {{DEFAULTSORT:Elephant Man 1975 births Living people Jamaican reggae singers Contemporary R&B singers Jamaican dancehall musicians Ragga musicians Musicians from Kingston, Jamaica Bad Boy Records artists Atlantic Records artists VP Records artists Greensleeves Records artists