Born Garfield Delano Spence – Konshens never actually planned a career in music, apart from enjoying the vibe it gave him growing up. He was just like the average Jamaican youngster, “at that time it was just ball game, school and girls, I never saw music as a profession” he vividly recalls (laughs).
A resident of Sherlock a garrison community located in the Duhaney Park area of Kingston, Konshens began showing a commitment in music pretty late, 2005 to be specific. Back then the now DJ was just another curious stranger who use to hang out with his older brother Delus (Sojah) at Sugar Minott’s Black Roots Recording Studio, but their vision for music changed when they linked up with the musical family Cash Flow. “That’s where I got my break I recorded my first song there on the Guilty Riddim and it did well, it went number 1 in Japan and how we found out was we just search for the song on the internet and read up some info and there it was number 1 in Japan so we did a one month tour over there. The following year 2006 we (Sojah & I)released an album (Sons of Jah) and get another Japan tour, this time for 2 weeks”.
Realizing he was on to something good Konshens began making steps in the right direction. Not a producer of beats himself he hooked up with the father and son team of Cash Flow to compose tracks as he penned lyrics to launch his own solo career, a move he says was all apart of the grand plan. “When we came back from tour we sat down and said that we wanted to attack it from a local stand point so me and Delus (Sojah) say we were gonna try solo careers and see what happened.
I worked at the National Public Health Lab and was pulling down a 20 pack ($ 20,000) but then its like I made a business decision because I was cutting dub plates for the same 20 pack in two minutes doing something I just love doing so I thought why not do some more tracks and make money at the same time”.
Surprising a lot of his friends and former school mates Konshens said his decision to pursue music shocked many persons. “a lot of people really couldn’t believe I was doing music at the time because I didn’t really show any signs earlier out, it wasn’t until later on that I became addicted and even started ghostwriting for people, I just wanted to create something new everyday”.
As with most success stories there was always someone that believed from day one in the artist and Konshens found that loyalty and support from a long time friend who played the role of his A&R at the time, shopping his work to well known producers while keeping him focused on the bigger picture. “Me and Carlington Wilmot (Photographer / Website Manager) use to hit the road and one day him tell me sey him have a link a Natural Bridge Records. We went there and I spoke to Tamra Recas and she gave me a riddim and I voiced a song and they liked it. From there I was introduced to Mark Pinnock the C.E.O and we spoke back and forth for a while until we came to an agreement that was like the turning point for me”…
Original article can be read here.