Rhyging

Famed Jamaican outlaw Ivanhoe 'Rhyging' Martin, was a 24 year old man who died of gunshot wounds sustained during a shootout with police officers on September 9, 1948, in Lime Cay, Jamaica. Rhyging is appropriately regarded as the initial Rudeboy.

Often alluded to historically as the "Jamaican Dillinger", the seemingly invincible gunman managed to escape from prison, elude a massive dragnet, and live a life of crime for years with the help of the jamaican public before his last stand at Lime Cay.

The name Rhyging is a Jamaican patois(patwa)word meaning something like wild, hot, or bad. Ivan was nicknamed this by the locals during his rise to fame as an uncatchable two gun gangster. Rhyging could never be caught, and because of this he was seen as sort of a hero to the sufferers living in the ghetto of 1940's Jamaica. An avenging angel of hope to the people brutalized by the police and ignored by their government. Jimmy Cliff refers to him as a kind of Jamaican Robin Hood, who was "very much on the side of the people". Rhyging continues to play a role in Jamaican culture as a duppy or bogeyman used to scare children.

Pronunciation of Rhygin'

Though the name inherited by the infamous criminal/anti-hero is spelled Rhyging [as seen in print torn from the headlines of the news paper The Jamaica Gleaner] The legendary name Rhyging is often pronounced in Jamaican dialect or patois as Rhygin' [pronounced as though the letter 'g' at the end were silent] The name is acceptably pronounced as though you were saying the word rhyming only with a hard 'Guh' sound in place of the letter m.

Cultural references

He was the inspiration for the 1972 film The Harder They Come starring Jimmy Cliff as Ivan Martin and directed by Perry Henzell.

He is also mentioned by the band The Clash in the song "The Guns of Brixton" off the 1979 album release London Calling.

The legend gave inspiration to Boston dub reggae band Rhyging. Established as a 3 piece in the late summer of 2003.