Krista Henry, Staff Reporter

Having been born into music, son of veteran producer Mikey Bennett, T' Jean Bennett is branching out to create his own legacy in the business.

The 20-year-old producer started professionally in the business two years ago and has since worked with some big names, with an arsenal of singles to be released soon.

A former student of Kingston College and Wolmer's High School, Bennett is fully focused on music, working from his father's Grafton studios in Vineyard Town.

He told THE STAR recently, "I was basically born into music, it's all I've known coming up. I started music officially two years now, I met up with Andrew Myers of UIM and that's how I got started with them. UIM was like a sound system from way back then, and me and Andrew started doing production work for them."

smash collaboration

UIM is known for producing songs such as Dagga Dat from Bragga Dat as well as the 'Purge' rhythm.

With UIM, Bennett has been working hard co-producing the smash collaboration Fresh 2 Death featuring brother Nicky B, Chino, Laden, Chedda and Konshens.

He has also co-produced upcoming singles with popular artistes such as Munga Honourable, Tarrus Riley, Junior Reid, Anthony B and others.

The youngster has songs on Busy Signal's upcoming album D.O.B , among them, Yes Dawg.

For the summer, Bennett is looking to release the dancehall oriented 'Sanction' rhythm which features Mavado, Vybz Kartel, Aidonia, Chase Cross among others, as well as another collaboration between Tarrus Rily and Konshens and Cyaan Draw Me Out from Munga and Voicemail.

While he has been producing these songs under the UIM label, the young producer two weeks ago parted ways with the record label, due to internal differences. Now he is set to get his future in the business on his own terms with plans to study at the Edna Manley School of the Visual and Performing Arts, as well as plans to start his own production label.

conscious music

He said, "After me finish put out the songs I had worked on with UIM, I want to work on my own or maybe with Andrew. I want to do some reggae and conscious music and start working on a one-drop rhythm."

According to Bennett, his famous dad is supportive of his career saying, "He's glad to see that I'm serious; when mi a come in from studio he's just getting up in the morning so he knows that I'm passionate about it."

While his family is heavily involved in the business, the youngster doesn't bank on his popular last name to get success, but prefers to let his work get him further, which he believes will happen one day soon.