Dancehall DJ Fambo opens up on addiction, street hustles and planned baptism

Dancehall DJ Fambo, once best known for the 2010 track Frogg a Dancehall, is now drawing attention for candid social-media posts about his collapse into drug addiction, later health scares, and efforts to rebuild — including plans to be baptised next year on his mother’s birthday.

In an Entertainment Report interview, Fambo said he is not baring his soul so much as freeing it. As a public figure, he argued, he is a brand the public owns, and his life remains an open book. Comments branding him a former addict or alcoholic do not trouble him, he said, because he refuses to hide.

His sharpest low point, he recalled, came in New York during his drug problem, when he slept in churches and rode the train between Brooklyn and the Bronx for lack of a place to stay. He said he put himself in that position and believes he had to pass through it to reach where he is now.

Fambo traced the spiral to his mother’s death. She was his biggest fan and motivation, he said. He also spoke about her mental illness, saying she was unwell when he was born and would walk with a rope tied to his hand so he followed behind her — something he said he is not ashamed to recount.

After she died, he said he went into a freefall involving drugs and sex work. Earlier, in Ocho Rios, he described meeting tourists on the beach, steering them to clubs such as Roof Club and Amnesia, and working as a gigolo. He said he later sold pills, marijuana and Adderall while hustling in New York, but insisted his music career never fully stopped: he kept recording and taking shows, even if the pay was not top-tier. He said he would never hustle the music itself.

Faith, he said, ended his fear of people and of hardcore artists. He does not call himself a full Christian, but a man of God who has “sinned enough already” and intends to be baptised on his mother’s birthday next year. The Lord saved his life, he said, and he tells his story so others can see that.

He is releasing new work with collaborator Shawn Izzle, including material framed around giving thanks. Izzle called Fambo a real entertainer whose energy and transparency are genuine, and said the streets have run with their music. Fambo, once an ego-boosting sidekick to major dancehall names, rejected the label “informer,” calling himself an influencer with no secrets. Only Bounty Killer and Sean Paul, he said, treated him well and paid him properly. He feels betrayed by the wider industry — helped others rise, then left at the bottom — but no longer leans on people’s opinions. God trusts him, he said, and he wants a legacy for his children. He described feeling “amazing” after speaking out.