Capleton's first single was the risqué Bumbo Red, which was banned from Jamaican radio for its sexually explicit lyrics, but became a huge word-of-mouth hit. He made a well-received appearance at the 1990 Reggae Sunsplash Festival, and issued a series of popular -- and often slack -- singles for various producers, the biggest of which were Number One Pon the Look Good Chart and Lotion Man. The 1991 LP Capleton Gold gathered some of these early recordings, and he also appeared on several split albums, the most notable of which was 1992's Double Trouble, shared with General Levy. By 1992, a distinct cultural consciousness was becoming apparent in Capleton's work, starting with the landmark hit single Alms House. An album of the same name was issued in 1993, collecting further singles in the same vein like Matie a Dead, Unnu No Hear, and Make Hay, among others.
During this era, Capleton was truly coming into his own; still recording prolifically in 1993, he scored several signature hits with Everybody Needs Somebody, Cold Blooded Murderer, and Buggering. Those tracks all appeared on the 1994 album Good So. By that point, Capleton's conversion to Rastafarianism was complete and now dominated his music to a greater degree than ever before. His success also earned him a shot with an American major label, Def Jam, for which he debuted with the album Prophecy in 1995. Hip-hop remixes of Tour and Wings in the Morning (the latter of which featured a guest spot from Method Man) made Capleton a significant crossover success on the rap and dance singles charts, and Prophecy sold quite respectably in the U.S. Def Jam also issued the follow-up album, 1997's I Testament, which continued in a similar vein: RB accessibility fused with Rastafarian militancy.
Capleton subsequently returned his focus to the Jamaican market, and although his music was now rootsier than ever, he began to temper his Rasta obsessions with more romantic lyrics. 1999's One Mission gathered some of his work, but a better chronicle of his highly consistent output over 1999-2000 was More Fire, which contained all of his biggest hits of the period: the rootsy-sounding Who Dem?, the antiviolence anthem Jah Jah City, the female-positive Good in Her Clothes. 2002's Still Blazin' gathered much of his best work from the next two years. ~ Steve Huey, Rovi