General Degree

Cardiff Butt, better known as General Degree, was born in Manchester, Jamaica on April 28th. Active in the industry since the late 1980s- early 1990s, Degree is one of the most hard working and underrated dancehall/reggae artists to hit the scene.

General Degree’s interest in music and rhyming developed at an early age, which he often had to hide from his strict Christian parents. He worked as a tailor in his hometown and saved the money he made to travel to Jamaica’s capital city, Kingston, for an opportunity to work in the music industry he had grown to love.

Under Danny Browne of Main Street Records, General Degree dropped his first single, ‘Granny’, released on his debut album of the same name in 1992. The record, which featured Degree’s humorous and creative impression of a grandmother, dominated airwaves for more than a year.

Degree continued to drop hit after hit through the 90s and beyond. Some of his most popular records include ‘Mother Rude Pickney’, ‘Mr. Do It Nice’, ‘When I Hold You Tonight’, ‘Bodyguard’, ‘Papa Lover’, ‘Traffic Blocking’, and ‘Boom Boom’.

General Degree is continuing to school new dancehall/reggae artists as he consistently releases new tracks and production work as a dynamic DJ and producer, under the name Snapple Dapple. Degree believes his work as Snapple Dapple, a name he’s used since he got more into production 2000, will showcase his maturity throughout the years.

When the Jamaica Gleaner asked him what he would want to bring back into the industry now, General Degree left them with this statement:

“I’m not trying to bring back anything. I’m going to maintain what I have. I dominated the industry in the 1990s and I helped and contributed in my own way to the development of dancehall in the 1990s…I’m just doing me and I’m doing my best.”

Keep doing you, Degree, we are HERE FOR IT!