Warrior King "Virtuous Woman" (2001)

​‪@LeoOReggio‬

This music video is very special to me. When I first heard the song, I fell in love with it and immediately said I must do a free video for this song. The artist was new so I never knew him or met him, so one day I asked one of my links to find him for me. As Jah would have it, that same day I went to a popular ital food restaurant to eat and the artist was there. I introduced myself and expressed my desire to do a music video for the song and he welcomed it. A wonderful person he is and since that day we have been close friends.
I must also give thanks to my close friend, Gregory Lopez, who is himself an established director of photography (DP) and video producer, for assisting with directing and producing this video.

Born to Tass and Doreen Dyer in Kingston, Jamaica on July 27, 1979, Mark Dyer aka ‘Warrior King’ has always had an affinity for music. Like many successful Jamaican entertainers, Warrior King gained his earliest stage experience in talent shows. “I started out with school concerts at first,” he says. “At the time when I just came into music, I used to do some combinations with a youth named Marlon Stewart, his stage name at the time was ‘Likkle Blacks’ and mine was ‘Bounty Junior’. We did Tastee Talent Show among others… so we could really start getting exposure and gain experience.” In the nineties, Dyer’s sound was infused with dancehall. His stage name ‘Bounty Junior’ indicated his love for his then mentor ‘Bounty Killa’, a Jamaican dancehall icon. After changing his stage name to ‘Junior King’ at age 16, it was another popular dancehall entertainer named ‘Frisco Kid’ aka ‘Ancient Monarchy’ changed his stage name to ‘Warrior King’.

“I agreed because it has a more spiritual feel to it. Fighting against oppression, fighting against wrong. It represented the growth and evolution I had gone through,” says King. “It’s a natural thing that had grown inside of me, even without me realizing it. People started telling me they love my style of singing now. So, really and truly it was just a natural change.”

Warrior King was born in Kingston but moved to Clarendon, Jamaica during his early years. He went to ST Andrew Technical High School(Staths)and studied Human Rights and African Awareness at St. Andrew's Technical College, and then was a mechanical engineering student at the National Tool and Engineering Institute before he changed gears to pursue his musical career.

Warrior King’s debut single “Virtuous Woman”, produced by Michael ‘Lion Paw’ Johnson was released in 2001. It was an international smash hit. Its righteous lyrics prompted the Jamaica Observer to declare the singer “one of the artists who has made a difference”. In October 2001, this song went # 1 on the Jamaican reggae charts for months, as well as, the New York Top 30 Reggae Singles chart.

In 2002, his first album entitled Virtuous Woman was released by VP Records and spent nine weeks on the Billboard.com charts. That same year, the singer spent three weeks on his first tour across the United States to open for Luciano's “The Messenger”. Then, in 2003, Warrior King went on a seven-week tour with the Abyssinians all over Europe.

Throughout his career, Warrior King’s compositions have consistently charted in the Caribbean, the United States, Europe, Asia, and Africa.
Other hits such as “I Love You” released on Tixie’s Label went number one in Japan in the early 2000s and “Baby Girl” went number one in Ghana in 2005.

In 2008, Barrack Obama, former President of the United States of America (USA) publicly declared “Virtuous Woman” as one of his favourite songs and Warrior King as one of his favourite reggae artists on CNN Live and NBC. The latter notion was seconded by British Formula One race car driver Lewis Hamilton on BBC Television.

In 2001 when the hit "Virtuous Woman" became well known on the international reggae scene, The Jamaica Observer declared Warrior King "one of the artists who made a difference in 2001." In August 2010, Warrior King was recognized by the United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) Marcus Garvey Awards for his contribution to music. In 2017, 11 June was officially declared Warrior King Day in the city of Buffalo, United States by Buffalo's mayor, Byron W. Brown.

Warrior King is a devout follower of the Rastafarian faith and continues to use his music to reinforce messages about love, tolerance, education, and upliftment. The singer believes that education is the key to better lives and hopes that his music will serve to convey the teachings of His Imperial Majesty, Haile Selassie I. “As a Rastafarian, I understand we must teach religious tolerance, and peace between all. I don’t just sing music; I sing music with a purpose, a mission, and love. To the four corners of the earth I carry my music, the message of the King…” says Warrior King.
The Rootz Warrior brings forth messages of Purity, Truth, Strength, and Love.