Donell Spaulding is a Jamaican artiste, born on October 13th 1996 at the Victoria Jubilee Hospital – Kingston, Jamaica. His stage name, Leno Banton, has recently been changed from “Lord Leno” to further embrace the legacy of his father, Burro Banton. Leno Banton spent his early childhood being raised in a community known as New Haven located in Duhaney Park, Kingston 20. He and his family later relocated their residency to Hellshire, where it would prove to be the ideal environment to suite his personality and bring comfort and serenity to him as he writes.
Leno Banton has aspired to be a recording artiste from as early as nursery school where he would deejay one of his father’s most popular songs “Boom Wah Dis” to his classmates. Even though society deems music as an unconventional and risky profession his aspirations were not easily swayed, and at a tender age he could feel a connection to the music he was exposed to so ritually. He began to draw his inspiration from listening to and learning from the situations spoken by various artistes through their lyrics and the instrumentals they used. In almost every situation you could find him uttering lyrics or sampling a beat with whichever object he could find in his immediate surroundings.
In his adolescent years, while attending Meadowbrook High School, he would write rap songs due to the heavy influence of Hip Hop on the current generation. After graduating high school and building himself and his maturity he then realized that Cultural Jamaican music was always his true calling. He recorded his first official track “Yardie” in November of 2015 for Massive B label at the Anchor Studio with his father there proudly supporting him. This track received so much support from his social media that it alleviated any uncertainty or doubts within him and leads to the production of music that we hear from him now.
In 2016 it marked the beginning of his full time endeavour into music as he began releasing music on a more regular basis, tracks including “Too Ea$y” and “Ganja Phenomenon” just to name a few, with each track gaining more plays than the last. These tracks, produced primarily by SNR (Senior), includes his own fusion of Reggae and Hip Hop creating their own sound harmonizing seamlessly. He then collaborated with a fellow upcoming artiste, Blvk H3ro (Black Hero), on the track “Skydive” featured on Hero’s project dubbed THC which has gained much attention within the social media community. On August 1st 2016 Leno Banton released REMSZN first full length project produced by SNR. Since the release of REMSZN over the years Leno has received tremendous positive feedback from new and old supporters, with new songs such as Mind Heart Soul, Universe, SIMMA, Socialize and Wata Baby (which got featured on Spotify & Tidal playlist). Countless doors have now been opened and many opportunities have now been presented to him to help further this new journey. His performances at ARTive, Reggae Offsprings and Imprint, Sankofa Sessions, amongst other events, has left the crowds genuinely enthused and wanting more.
Leno Banton is not yet a household name, however time and hard work will put him above and beyond the previous generation. There is no doubt of his talent for music and crossing paths with him shows just how humble and true he is to his gift. His dedication to the craft will one day surely carry him to the professional level he has always dreamed of.