Kwame Heshimu

Kwame Heshimu (born January 17, 1954) is a Jamaican-American musician, songwriter, and adjunct instructor at the Pratt Institute's School of Liberal Arts & Sciences. He formed the band Full Hand in 1975 and released a solo album, Follow I, in 1980, which received high praise.

Early life Kwame Heshimu was born on January 17, 1954, in Saint Ann Parish, Jamaica to a Cuban father and a Jamaican Maroon mother. At the age of sixteen, he became musical director of "Sing Out Jamaica", a group that toured in several Caribbean island nations and enjoyed mild success. He briefly moved to New York City for a year before returning to Jamaica in order to work with Augustus Pablo and Linval Thompson on several songs at the Harry J Studio in Kingston. Proctor Lippincott of The New York Times wrote, "Mr. Heshinu's tenor voice can be caressing and seductive, like Smokey Robinson's, more often carries a raspy, staccato urgency reminiscent of the vocal style of Mr. Marley, who has been a big influence". Around the same time, he was a songwriter on The Bar-Kays' album, As One.

The following November Heshimu released his debut album, Follow I, produced by Lee Jaffe and Karl Pitterson.

Adjunct instructor As of 2025, Heshimu is the adjunct instructor of Humanities and Media Studies and a tutor at the Pratt Institute's School of Liberal Arts & Sciences in Brooklyn. He voiced his support of Michael Bloomberg's potential presidential candidacy in 2006 in an interview with Staten Island Advance.

Heshimu is not religious, although he has acknowledged Rastafari culture as a major inspiration for his music.