DWAYNE ‘Supa Dups’ Chin-Quee has had a decorated career as a producer. He has worked with a long list of heavyweights in dancehall, rhythm and Blues and hip hop.
With three Grammy Awards to his credit and hits on the Billboard pop charts, he says there is still more to be accomplished.
“Just like anything else success comes with hard work and making the right decisions. To be successful in music you have to love it before anything else. Wanting to be in music for any other reason than that you won’t make it,” Supa Dups told Splash.
Many Jamaican music fans know Supa Dups as founding member and owner of the Miami-based Black Chiney sound system.
Black Chiney started in 1999 with Supa Dups and colleagues Richard Flores and Bobby Chin producing ‘mix CDs’ for the Poison Dart sound system.
“I continued to put out CDs and then started doing remixes for DJ Khaled until Black Chiney exceeded both Poison Dart’s and DJ Khaled’s popularity. It was Bounty Killer who convinced us to turn Black Chiney into a sound system and the rest is history,” Supa Dups recalled.
Bounty Killer gave solid advice!
As demand for Black Chiney grew, Supa Dups brought in his cousin Willy Chin and Walshy Fire as members. The latter is still a member of Black Chiney but also works with the hot Major Lazer camp.
Supa Dups was born in Kingston but has lived in the United States since his teens. He says his involvement in music was inevitable.
“I grew up around music all my life. My older brothers were DJ/selectors and I got my influence from there. I started to DJ/select when I was 11 and at age 15 I started to get interested in how the music was made. My aunt who I lived with mortgaged her house and bought me an Akai MPC 3000 and I have been producing ever since,” he said.
Black Chiney has helped push Jamaican music into the US mainstream. Some of the songs the ‘sound’ is responsible for breaking on the Billboard charts are Turnin’ Me On by Nina Sky and Father Elephant by Elephant Man, both produced by Supa Dups.
