Sweetie Irie

Dean Bent (born January 1971), better known as Sweetie Irie, is an English reggae singer and DJ. Sweetie Irie began working on local sound systems as a teenager, bringing him to the attention of Angus Gaye of Aswad, who recruited him to MC on the dancehall mix of their single "On And On" which went on to be number one in sixty two countries, He was then signed by Island Records and in 1991 released his debut album DJ of the Future which went gold.

Sweetie achieved a top 30 hit with Aswad “Smile” and a top 40 with Scritti Politti “Take Me In Your Arms And Love Me.” In 1999 Sweetie joined up with UKG outfit Middle Row and went on to collaborate on the Gorillaz hit single “Clint Eastwood” which charted at number two and also went platinum in the UK, he then followed that with a top 30 single “Who” which led him to signing a major deal with Sony BMG.

In 2016 Sweetie teamed up with the club Ministry of Sound and contemporary artists Kiedeko and George Kwali featuring Nadia Rose to release their single “Crank It” which was championed by BBC Radio 1 and went on to be a top 20 hit.

2017 Sweetie performed on a special edition of Top of the Pops and also performed on the BBC proms as the first Reggae artist to do so. In 2018 sweetie collaborated with Redlight on their single “Zum Zum.”

He has toured for the last three decades and has performed at festivals including Glastonbury, Wireless, Love box and Boom town.

As well as the artists mentioned above, he has also collaborated with No Doubt, Ian Brown, Gwen Stefani, Sly and Robbie, Bobby Digital, Maxi Priest, Shy Fx, Congo Natty, Roni Size, Redlight, Zinc, Ms Dynamite to name a few. In the last few years Sweetie has teamed up with drum and bass producer Benny Page, perfecting a new sound which is a mix of Sweetie’s Reggae Dancehall Roots’s and Benny’s drum and bass, Jungle Roots which resulted in the album Purple.

Sweetie also featured on Afro beats legendary producer Julz colour tape album (Radar)

2020 saw Sweetie team up with Blaise and Nono for the Jin Jin label (Good Body), which regularly appeared on Love Island.