If you were to circle the dancehall fraternity and check out the alias of some of the more prominent deejays of the past and present, some of the more popular surnames you would encounter are Ranking, Banton, Demus, Cat and the list goes on and on. However, in late 1991 a posh name sprung unto the scene, it was a Benz and the deejay's name was Spragga. Carlton Grant was called Spagetti as a youngster by his friends and as he grew older the name grew in Spragga and Benz came from the L.A. Benz sound system on which he used to spin tunes in Duhaney Park. and surrounding areas.
It is quite interesting how the deejay got his break into the music business. While spinning tunes for L.A. Benz, he would take artist to the studio to make dubplates and during the era when Buju Banton was just bussing out of the pack with tunes like 'Brownin,' Spragga had asked Buju to full out a dubplate for his sound which consisted of four tracks. However, Buju told him that he could only provide two and Spragga replied that the flip side would be empty so that wouldn't work. Buju then suggested that Spragga fill the remaining tracks himself. Of course Spragga resisted the offer because he didn't know himself as a deejay but Buju persuaded him to do so. Spragga went along with the program and began to deejay some lyrics off the top of his head and by the time he got into a few of the lines the massive at the studio began to shout pam pam ! bussing a lot of blank shots and right away L.A. Benz took the dubplate, and the tune was called 'Love Mi Gun.'
The dub began to mash up Duhaney Park and so L.A. Benz suggested that he do a follow up which was the 'Jack It Up' which tore up the place so much that outside sound systems began to inquire who was that deejay, and they were surprised to know that it was just the selector. These outside sounds now began to request dubs from Spragga who initially turned down their request because he didn't regard himself as a deejay but his thoughts changed when they told him that they were willing to pay him. By now those sounds had brought the tunes to their area and they got the same positive response which created a domino effect with more sound system requesting the dubplates, especially when the saw him at Arrows dub studio. The first big sound that he recorded for was Metromedia. The deejay was now in high demand and proceeded to release his first tune which was called 'Could A Deal' produced by Winston Riley and 'Jack It Up' right after, produced by Arrows.
Now that Spragga has made his name, he has not forgotten where he came
from and he constantly does his best at exposing new artists in the business.
Some called it his Benzspeculous Crew but he explained that the alleged
members were only his 
friends
that are usually on base. He gives these new artistes an opportunity to
voice tunes until they reach a certain stage where they can go on their
own and then a new set of youths would fill the gap. He sees it as one
hand washing the other because anything can happen in that one day it may
be one of the artists calling him up on stage. A successful example is
Babycham and in the meantime you can look out for Black Pearl and Sugar
Slick. He also tries to increase their knowledge of the tricks in the music
industry because from experience he has been short changed by many producers
and right now it is only Madhouse, Penthouse and rookie Productions that
pays him royalty. He also feels that its really sad for an artist to do
a tune for a producer and the producer doesn't even produce a blank statement
of what happened with the tune. But money is not his main focus and he
continues to do his best at improving himself and his music.
Spragga tried to deny the fact that he is a sex symbol for the ladies, but he did state that he feels more comfortable around women than men. He does not have a bonafide female companion and doesn't believe in having a lot of women at the same time either, nor does he plan on a relationship but if it happens naturally he will certainly utilize the opportunity. The deejay declares that he is approachable and will approach a lady if he finds that she possesses certain characteristics that he is looking for in a woman.
Spragga also continues to do his best at giving back to the community by pioneering a 'Stay In School' project. At its inception, he went to Primary and All Age Schools in every parish across Jamaica building a one and one relationship with the kids encouraging them to attain their education because it is the key to life. He has also made financial donations to various schools where its principal would use it to assist students who were unable to make it to school because of financial problems, or sometimes the money would go towards upgrading the school. He has also provided pens, pencils, books and certain other necessary school accessories. However, the deejay confessed that since lately he has gotten selfish and has been providing more for his Alma Mater, Camperdown High School by donating to them computer related items which he collects while on tour, due to their opening of a new computer lab recently.
Currently the deejay only works with a few selected producers because of bad experiences in the past where his tune was not properly marketed, promoted or sometimes too many would flood the market. Two of his hotter tunes on the road right now are the remixes of 'Dolly House' which is the only tune that Dave Kelly wrote for him and 'No Way.' He gets his lyrical inspiration from natural vibes and what he sees happening around his environment. which is evident in his diversified repertoire of tunes that varies from cultural to badman to those directed more towards the ladies.
Nevertheless,
we can definitely remember the days when Spragga was signed to Capitol
Records. He does not regret departing from the label because they were
lackadasic in accepting certain proposals from his management team which
were already agreed upon in his contract . Moreover, he feels that the
label already had plans to eject music from his ethnicity from their portfolio,
and thus were not showing any interest in their objectives. Furthermore
he felt that he was not compensated properly for his level of work which
sometimes took toll on his body. The states that he does not mind signing
another contract but they could only get a distribution deal.
Without a doubt, the work that some of these labels are putting out have made the dancehall industry stagnant and the deejay endorses that opinion. He feels that the radio jocks also a major factor why the music is where it is today. Spragga thinks that some of the radio jock are greedy because many demand additional money to play tunes when they already receive a salary or commission to do so. Another style the radio jocks have is to ask artists to pass through their promotions and whenever an artist object they take it personal and form a syndicate against the artist with his other DJ friends giving the artist a bad name and refrain from playing his tunes. As a result, the tunes which are being paid for becomes catchy through their regular rotation and makes their way to the top of the charts. Then an outsider who suddenly decides to listen to dancehall and hears what is considered a hit gets discouraged because of the poor quality.
The deejay does not consider himself to be one of the top three deejays,
but think he is definitely there when it comes down to lyrics. Last year
'Sustain' a tune he did on the 'Heathen' got reviewed in the Jamaica Star
as the best tune for the year yet it was not a regularly played tune in
the dancehall or on the radio. He also enjoys listening to other deejays
and declares that he would pay to see Bounty Killer or Beenie Man anytime
along with the Alias Crew and many other artists. L.A. Benz is his first
and foremost sound and he also likes Afrique and a few hardcore clashes
now and again. He is working hard at making preparations to elevate his
career I the future and already results have begun to spark. We already
know that his lyrics are unstoppable, his voice is unique and his style
is always original. With those three combinations, his limit may extend
way beyond the horizon.
