Robert “Bobby Digital” Dixon was one of reggae and dancehall’s key producers of the 1990s and 2000’s, having developed his craft as a key part of King Jammy’s influential production team in the 1980s.
He was given his nickname “Bobby Digital” because King Jammy, with whom he worked in the mid-1980s, had begun experimenting with digital rhythms at around the same time.
He owned the Digital B label, and among the artists with hits on the label are Shabba Ranks and Sizzla.
Dixon initially helped bring Shabba Ranks to prominence, produced key tracks for Admiral Tibet, Garnett Silk, Morgan Heritage, and brought Sizzla into the prime of his career with the LP Black Woman & Child in 1997.
Despite his nickname and association with Jammy’s digital sound, Dixon was very effective and influential in bringing back the live drum sound in the 1990s and early 2000s, prominently heard on Sizzla’s “Good Ways” and Da Real Thing LP and Morgan Heritage “Don’t Haffi Dread.”
He went on his own in 1988, opening the Heatwave studio and working on his own label as well as a successful distribution company.
In the 1980s, Dixon helped stylize the computerized phase of Jamaican music, as an accomplished digital engineer. Dixon died in Kingston on May 21, 2020 at the age of 59 following a kidney-related illness.
