| Biography | Versatile singer / songwriter/ producer RONALD JUNIOR FRITZ (aka RANDY VALENTINE) hails from country sides of Clarendon in Jamaica. As a child growing up he was heavily influenced by his fathers love for music, which was expressed mostly via a sound sytem that his father owned called SHINING STAR SOUND.
He started off his music career in 2005 (2 years after emigrating with his family to the UK) as a local DJ, where he used to perform in clubs in and out of London which led to him working for two years on a online Radio Station SWITCH 106 where he went by the moniker DJ KWES.
In 2008, he started producing with the london-based J.O.A.T production team after meeting KEVIN ABABIO in the corridors of the hospital that he was working in at the time. Several years later (in 2010) they met and joined forces with GARY RIGA BURKE (Management) from the swiss based independent label HEMP HIGHER PRODUCTIONS, in an effort to focus more on RVs vocal talents and potential career as an artist.
RANDY VALENTINEs career has been growing from strength to strength since the release of his debut mixtape Bring back the love in 2012 where he sang over 13 tracks all built upon STUDIO ONE Riddims, such as Stalag Riddim, Bobby Babylon Riddim, Lecturer Riddim and more
Since then, it has been described by some to be a Reggae Classic.
The official R-V-LUTION SUMMER TOUR 2013 was one of the biggest reggae tours for a debut reggae artist and saw him perform over 20 shows in more than 10 different European countries.
After the success of his first official EP Break The chain (HEMP HIGHER PROD 2014), he confirmed his status as one of the leading young reggae artist as the project topped itunes reggae sales charts in over 9 countries. He has been constantly travelling the world over the past few years, and has accomplished to date:
- 5 European tours (performing at all major reggae festivals including Summerjam, Reggaejam, Reggae Gell and much more
.)
- 2 US media tours (including a promotional live performance at SIRIUS XM and HOT 97
- 1 Central American tour
- 1 Australian tour
- 1 UK tour
His second EP Still Pushing (produced by JOE ARIWA, son of legendary MAD PROFESSOR) was released the following year in 2015, and went straight to the top of the Itunes reggae charts again confirming that Randy was not a passing sensation and was definitely here to stay.
2015 was also the year in which Randy started to explore different genres of music, as he featured on MAJOR LAZERs EP: Peace is the mission (No1 on Billboard Dance / Electronic albums), and also collaborated on one of the most talked about musical projects of the year: WU TANGs unique album copy of Once upon a time in Shaolin.
His latest project is a 19 track mixtape entitled RADIO MUSIC (which is similar in concept to his debut mixtape) recorded over a series of classic hiphop instrumentals mostly from the late 90s (often considered one of the golden ages of Hip-Hop). When asked why he chose these specific instrumentals his answer was plainly They inspire me to inspire others.
The raptape was premiered to the world end of January on BBC 1XTRA by SEANI B. |