MACKIE CONSCIOUS, the singer, songwriter and musician was christened Dennis McKay. A Libran who celebrates his birthday on September 23, he was born in the inner city community of Clarke Street, Montego Bay, Jamaica, W.I.

His scholastic activities began at Miss Katy Basic School in his community of Mount Salem. His next stop was at Barracks Road Primary from where he went to the Montego Bay Secondary, before terminating his school life at the Montego Bay Community College.

The struggle for a good education was hard in a family of eight children but with perseverance, dedication and much sacrifice he was able to achieve three A’ level subjects and five in the O’ levels, along with a college certificate – an outstanding achievement by Jamaican standards.

Mackie started singing at age 10 almost inimitably copying the style of the then baby boy prodigy Michael Jackson. Two years later, he learned to play the guitar, and a little piano almost on his own. He later became the bass player of a gospel band called CHOB in Montego Bay.

MACKIE worked in the field of Accounting at which time he played music part time. With economic difficulties still stalking him and an inability to find a job, he transformed his car into a taxicab. With poverty still virtually maintaining a sort of a stranglehold on him, Mackie resorted to a professional musician, playing in most of the hotels on the north coast circuit. This life did not exactly offer him a springboard out of his obscure existence as he often times had to endure a spate of disparaging receptions from senior personnel to the point of working for nothing, being fired from bands for the sake of friends - just to name a few.

In 1997 the song writing skills of Mackie Conscious elevated virtually overnight after having a dream about Bob Marley (the king of reggae) who told him he would have him continue writing his songs. Since then, Mackie has been inspired to write songs of education, freedom and consciousness with messages of spiritual upliftment .

By the year 2000, Mackie Conscious who also acquired a certificate in computer repairs, made his debut appearance on the biggest international music festival Reggae Sumfest.. By 2001-2002 he did his first overseas assignment, “A Tribute To New York” (following the 9/11 Massacre) in Florida. Mr. Conscious later became a household name judging by the frequent requests for interviews by most print, visual and audio media with the release of the thought-provoking song, “What If” (ensued by a music video) which went to number 18 on the Jamaica Top 40 Chart. This won him The JFM award for Best Recording Artiste 2001.

From then on the artiste scored big with hits like “Cell phone On His Hip”, “The World Is In Trouble”, “Who Is Your Friend”, “More Reality”, a cover version of the Jacob Miller classic “Discipline Child” “ Should I run”, “Cant be a king and no roya”, and most recently “Lucky Mi nuh Lucky.

Mackie who many of his fans cite as the next Bob Marley (in terms of message music) has performed for many celebrities like Louis Farrakhan, Patti La Belle, Cheryl Lee-Ralph, Jah Rule – among the more popular names.
Always in the studios adding to his collection, Mackie Conscious has other songs like “Money And Power”, “Never Give Up”, “Understand Each Other”, “Don’t blame Me”, “Mad World”, “Overtime” to name a few of some of which have been playing on the radio stations all over the world.

This dreadlocks entertainer has made a statement on major stage-shows sharing the spotlight with the blockbusters.