I like to write songs about what's happening, what I see around me and what I hear. Everyday life. Someone may be talking to me and I may take it from that.

Dekker was the first Jamaican artist to have a hit record in the US with a form and style that was purely Jamaican. Dekker's own songs did not go to the extremes of many other popular rude boy songs which reflected the violence and social problems associated with ghetto life though he did introduce lyrics that resonated with the rude boys starting with one of his best-known songs "007 (Shanty Town)". Career
Despite having achieved his aim of securing a record deal it would be a further two years before Dekker would see his first record released.

Desmond Dekker (16 July 1941 – 25 May 2006) was a Jamaican ska rocksteady and reggae singer-songwriter and musician. Other hits include "007 (Shanty Town)" (1967) "It Mek" (1969) and "You Can Get It If You Really Want" (1970). Together with his backing group The Aces (consisting of Wilson James and Easton Barrington Howard) he had one of the earliest international reggae hits with "Israelites".