“Party Animal” has a unique, slightly accelerated tempo for dancehall, making it more rhythmically aligned with soca, cumbia, and reggaeton (it’s considered part of the burgeoning soca-dancehall genre). But its sensitive sentiment foreshadows “Party Animal,” the biggest song of his career. It’s very different from other Charly singles, like the minimalist drum track “Bike Back” or the dramatic, dirge-like “Jamaican Everyday,” both from 2014. Search for his early songs on YouTube (where he’s credited as Charly Blacks, or sometimes Charley Black) and you’ll find “Woman It’s You” from 2004, a lover’s rock ballad covered in various synth effects. 'Listening to my mentor tell me that - I don’t want to hear nothing else from anybody. “He told me I’m a good writer and I must continue writing… those words, I’ll always live by them,' he said. He has a friendly relationship with his idol Bounty didn’t just big him up as a riddim selector, but also encouraged Charly to get on the mic. “I am one of the diehard fans that will always be representing Bounty Killer, because he’s as real as me,” said Charly. His favorite, then and now, is the aluminum-voiced Bounty Killer. As a schoolboy he’d deliver impromptu performances for classmates, standards by dancehall’s don dada emcees. “I wanted to become an artist from I was five,” Charly told me. “In those days, it was me, myself, and God, traveling back and forth.” “Nuff nights when I come from Kingston me have to pull over and sleep on the roadside,” he remembered.

He’d drive between Trelawny, Bass Odyssey’s headquarters in the hill town of Alexandria, and Kingston, where he’d play parties. Charly got to know Jamaica’s backroads in the mid-aughts while working as a selector for Bass Odyssey soundsystem, which has been stacking speakers at dances since 1989. Trelawny Parish is on Jamaica’s north coast, a two-hour drive from the cultural and financial epicenter of Kingston. I've been representing my parish from before I even was a star.” “I’ve never heard someone say ‘I’m a country man,’ so I decided I’m going to be proud of where I’m from. “Every artist you know of in the dancehall industry always say they’re ‘born under the clock’ ,” he said. But he has a soft side you can hear it on last year’s slow wine anthem, “Gyal You A Party Animal,” and you can hear it when he talks about home. Born Desmond Mendize and sometimes referred to as the ‘Trelawny General,’ Charly flips between first and third person when speaking, leaning into every syllable with drill sergeant emphasis. “Trelawny is yam country it’s very beautiful,” the Jamaican dancehall artist said of his hometown during a phone call from Kingston, where he’s now based. Charly Black is proud to be a country boy.

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