Merchant (aka Musicaly Merchant)

Merchant — born Ricardo Renford Nicholson, March 18, 1981, in Manchester, Jamaica — is a
Jamaican reggae and dancehall writer in the lineage that runs from Burning Spear and Bob
Marley through Buju Banton's Til Shiloh, Sizzla, Capleton, Anthony B, and Everton Blender, into
the modern revival led by Chronixx and Protoje. Twenty-two years of catalog. Forty-plus
documented singles. His December 2012 single Move Out Mi Tings ran on every major
Caribbean television channel and the Jamaica Star covered it as a cultural event of the season.
He is the nephew of conscious-reggae singer Derrick Parker, came up in the Portmore scene that
produced Vybz Kartel and Mavado, placed first runner-up to Gyptian at the 2004 B-mobile Star
Search, and made his major-stage debut at the West Kingston Jamboree on a bill with Beenie
Man, Vybz Kartel, and Mavado. Strange Philosophy, his first full-length album, releases August
2026 on Anthera Music with global distribution through OneRPM, anchoring a nine-single
campaign across the year. Production from Dean Fraser at Penthouse Recording Studio in
Kingston, mixed and mastered by Shane Brown at Anchors. The catalog is real. The lineage is
settled.