Born Max Elliott, he was raised in the London together with nine brothers and sisters. He was working as a carpenter when asked to build speaker boxes for local reggae groups in 1984. From building speakers, Maxi ended up on stange during live dancehall sessions which led to his first album "You're Safe" in 1985.

In 1987 Maxi made the connection with Sly and Robbie and the self titled "Maxi Priest" album hit the charts internationally. This album contained the cover of Cat Stevens' "Wild World" which received heavy airplay world-wide.

His 1990 release "Bonafide" again featured Sly and Robbie as well as assistance from Soul II Soul. "Bonafide" had some wonderful reggae tunes but the R&B flavored "Close To You" made Maxi a star in the US as it hit number one on the Billboard pop charts. Quickly following the success of "Bonafide", a best of album was released "Best of Me." The album contained "Wild World", "Close To You" and the previously unreleased "Housecall" with Shabba Ranks.

Maxi's next release "fe Real" was street influenced containing songs with Shaggy and Apache Indian. After this 1992 release, Maxi took a four year break before his next release although he was featured on many other artists' albums, was involved in many tours and even appeared on the David Letterman show with Dennis Brown doing a couple Bob Marley numbers.

1996 provided the long awaited next album "Man With The Fun." This album brought Maxi back to his roots with some fine pop reggae style songs as well as the great dancehall number "That Girl" with Shaggy.

Maxi continues to tour extensively and has been featured recently on two motion picture soundtracks. First, his cover of Blondie's "The Tide is High" was featured on the reggae influenced Speed 2 soundtrack and next he performed "It Starts in the Heart" on the soundtrack for Disney's Jungle 2 Jungle.