Greetings to everyone, my name is Jimmy Cliff, actor, music innovator, singer, songwriter, music producer, "Artivist", businessman, and much more... 
I took on to myself that name with the intention of establishing myself throughout this Planet, as high as the Cliff's of Adelphi Land where I was told I was born which seemed like the highest peak on the Earth to me as a child. 
Adelphi Land is a village in the District of Somerton in the parish of St James Jamaica an Island in the Caribbean Sea. That mission of establishing myself is more then half way there. 
My parents named me James Chambers at birth and today they remain my hero and "Shero". 
I was making music from the day I came out of my mother’s womb and said "AAAH" and I was acting since I can remember I could walk and laugh like my mother. 
People would pay me to do that so acting is what I loved to do most and even today I think I am better at that than singing/songwriting. 
I discovered I had a very unique voice in primary school and at the Pentecostal Church my family went to.
After leaving primary school at Somerton my father took me to the capital of Jamaica Kingston to go to Kingston technical school, with a few songs in my head I had written.

I tried many producers while still going to school studying radio and tv trying to get the songs recorded without much luck. I entered talent shows and won some and was cheated on some. One night I was walking past a record store and restaurant as they were closing, I pushed myself in and sang for the Chinese owners of the store and convinced one of them Leslie Kong to go into the recording business starting with me. 
My second recording with him Hurricane Hattie became a number one hit in Jamaica. I followed that hit up with Miss Jamaica, One Eyed Jacks, King of Kings and Leslie Kong went on to become King Kong among the producers in Jamaica. This was the ska era of Jamaican Music.

Chris Blackwell a Jamaican/British music producer/businessman was the point man in the UK for Jamaican Music. 
I was on my way to fulfilling my mission when I met him while invited to perform along with other artists at the NY's World Fair. 
He invited me to relocate to England after that. I went home to Jamaica after 4 years away where I recorded the songs except for Many Rivers To Cross, which I recorded in NY where I put the finishing touch on the recordings. The Album was put out on Island Records Blackwell's company as all my other recordings I had done up to that time I decided to call the Album just Jimmy Cliff even though it was called Wonderful World Beautiful People in the US. My mission was increasingly being realized. 
I scored another hit for myself with a Cat Stevens song Wild World. There were a few other minor hits in the UK before I was offered to play the lead role in a movie to be shot in Jamaica The Harder They Come, which became a landmark movie and put my career to another level. I was now being recognized as an actor the thing I love to do the most. This movie also exposed the world to the music visually that has now become know as Reggae.