Ashante “Taranchyla” Reid

Ashante Reid, professionally known as Taranchyla..

Born in New York City to Jamaican parents, the self-proclaimed “Jamerican” has demonstrated musical prowess in many areas from an early age. As a young selector, he played various house parties throughout his years in high school.

Moving to Florida in 1996, he continued to play out until joining Orlando’s top sound at the time named King Chalice. On that sound he began making his name in the world of soundclash, going up against the likes of David Rodigan, Ricky Trooper, and Pink Panther all before the age of 20. In the year 2000 he joined Florida’s notorious Poison Dart Sound, where both he and the sound made international waves in the clash arena. Participating in numerous major clashes while extensively touring 6 continents, Taranchyla became a major player in the soundclash world.

While touring with Poison Dart, Taranchyla began voicing custom dubplates for other sound systems to play in clashes.. Those dubplates got big forwards in the dance, establishing Taranchyla as the #1 custom dubplate artist in the clash world, a title he holds to this day. He also formed Madd Spider Productions during that time, producing several riddims with songs from artists like Buju Banton, Wayne Wonder, Sizzla, Gyptian among many others..

Eventually Taranchyla had to step away from Poison Dart as other musical ventures took center stage. Meanwhile, a dubplate he did for a major clash in New York got the attention of Walshy Fire from Major Lazer, thus launching Taranchyla into the world of songwriting. He went on to write songs for Sean Paul, Collie Buddz, Machel Montano, Skrillex, Major Lazer, Shaggy, Sting, Drake, Toni Braxton, Akon, among many others. He has multiple gold and platinum selling, as well as Grammy award winning credits to his name.

Taranchyla was also featured as a voice actor in a cartoon titled “Major Lazer” that premiered on FX Network. Doing the voices of several characters on the show, adding yet another facet to his diverse entertainment skill set. With many more projects in the works, the best of Taranchyla is surely yet to come.