McAnuff was born in 1957 in a family of preachers. He started his musical career, singing gospels in the church choir. He recorded his first album Pick hits to click in 1978. Two years later his second album What the man "a" deal wid was released. His best known song from this time is the single Malcolm X, which he recorded as a duet with Earl Sixteen. A third studio album, Electric dread, was released in 1986, after which McAnuff disappeared from the spotlight.
Although McAnuff had reasonable fame in Jamaica, none of his work was released elsewhere. It took til 2002 that his work was released in Europe. In 2002 the French record label Makasound released the first two albums and a compilation album Diary of the silent years. The release of the albums revived McAnuff's career, notably in France.
In 2005 McAnuff released the album A drop, which he recorded with the French keyboard player Camille Bazbaz. This record displays a mix of rock, funk, dub and punk rock. A year later, in 2006, a new album Paris' rocking, which he recorded with Java and other French session musicians, was released. His last album, Nostradamus, was released in 2008. The album was a concept album about the predictions of Nostradamus.
In 2011, he took part in Les 蒫hos Du Temps the latest album of Danakil, a French roots reggae band, on the track Media where both he and his son Matthew did a featuring.