Veteran Singer Ghost Shares How He Got His Name
Veteran Jamaican singer Ghost doesn’t scare crowds when he starts singing, but he did frighten his friends when he earned the nickname as a child. The entertainer shared the story behind his moniker in a recent Instagram chat with industry peer Singing Melody.
Ghost, whose given name is Carlton Hylton, was whisked away from Kingston to live in Clarendon with his mother at age five, where he became a child entrepreneur of sorts.
“Mi tun bottle police down there; any dance a keep down there me and my friends a come arrest yuh bottle dem,” he said. “One a di days no bottle nah run. Mi see one a mi friend wid piece a bread, him a go inna him yard but me deh cross the street from him… Mi seh, ‘Jah know star, mi hungry, beg yuh some bread nuh?… Him seh, ‘Yow come fi it nuh’. Dem time deh hungry a kill yuh and yuh nah look up or dung the road fi know seh okay I can get lick down…”
Upon crossing the street, he was hit by a bike which sent him flying in the air and crashing on his face on the sidewalk.
“My mom and some a mi other people dem carry mi go hospital in Lionel Town. When mi wake up mi face big suh, bigger than mi head, but mi still a think bout di piece a bread.”
He said he even asked his mother about the bread he was to have gotten from his friend, but she was more focused on the expenses that arose from his accident.
“Mom a seh, ‘Jah know star, mi nav no money fi tek care a yuh. Mi haffi go send yuh a yuh Fada up a town’… Mom ship mi up a town, dem plaster mi up, mi look like mummy enuh, face fat enuh.”
He stayed indoors upon his return to his Kingston home, but couldn’t help but go outside as his friends were playing football one day.
“One a dem spot mi and seh, ‘Yow a who dat, Carlton?’. A next one seh, ‘Jah know star, look like ghost’. Mi push back in mi head, mi nuh pay dem no mind. Mi nuh come out til bout two or three day afterward.”
His face was still swollen when he decided to face the world, and the “ghost” jokes continued.
“Di man dem start gimmicks mi…’Jah know star, yuh go a country and come back look like ghost star’. Yow every likkle turn mi turn di man dem seh, ‘Yow Ghost, yuh nah play football?’; ‘Yow Ghost, yuh nah go downtown?’. So the name kinda stick and it turn inna a nickname.”
There was another reason he embraced the name.
“Mi just run with it yaah, worse dem time deh mi never too look nice like how mi look right now, and yuh know Jamaican people, when yuh nuh look nice dem seh yuh ugly like ghost.”
The nickname, originally assigned in jest, has helped to build an international music career for the artiste who is revered for his raspy voice, flawless covers, and contribution to dancehall as a member of the Monster Shack Crew.
Ghost’s latest release is Humbly Before Thee , which he produced for MS Music.