Minott deserved more, Dancehall great to be buried today

Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer

Though he had a distinguished 40-year career, Sugar Minott sang the Rodney Dangerfield blues for much of his time in the music business. He felt he got no respect.

In a 2003 interview with The Gleaner, Minott bemoaned that lack of recognition despite his achievements as a vocalist, producer and impresario.

“Coxson (producer Clement Dodd) and Prince Buster, dem man deh a the king of sound system, U Roy a the king of deejay, him a the teacher,” he said.

“Mi gi dem man deh dem respect but as a man who start the new wave dancehall, nuh man nuh gi mi dem kinda reverence.”

Minott, who was best known for songs like Vanity, Herbmans Hustling and No Vacancy, died on July 10, age 54, at the University Hospital of the West Indies. His family said he had suffered breathing problems for several months.

The artiste will be remembered today during a thanksgiving ceremony at the National Arena, beginning at 10 a.m.

Singer Junior Reid made some of his earliest songs at Minott’s Youth Promotions where he recorded his first hit, Foreign Mind. He too believes Minott never got his due in Jamaica.

“Sugar bring a strength to the music weh nuff man neva bring, but him neva get any love from the fraternity,” said Reid, one day after Minott’s death.

Minott formed Youth Promotions in 1979 when his career was taking off on the power of hard-hitting numbers like Mr DC and A House Is Not a Home.

The company helped groom the careers of numerous roots performers including Reid, Tenor Saw, Nitty Gritty, Tristan Palmer, Little John and Garnet Silk.

While Minott never attained mass acclaim in Jamaica, it was a different story in places like Britain and Japan where he was hailed as a dancehall heavyweight. He made the British national chart in 1981 with a cover of the Michael Jackson song Good Thing Going, and introduced sound systems to Japan in 1985.

Disc jockey Steve James, host of the Real Rock show on Bess FM, said versatile reggae artistes like Sugar Minott are a dying breed.

“He was one of the few who could sing dancehall, roots and lovers’ rock. Not many people could test Sugar when it came to that,” James said.

Lincoln Barrington Minott grew up in the Chisholm Avenue area of Kingston, listening to the hallowed rocksteady songs of Alton Ellis and John Holt on sound systems. Later, he discovered roots reggae mainly through Dennis Brown, the most influential singer of his generation.

Prominence

Minott came to prominence in the dancehall where early songs like Vanity, Mr DC, River Jordan and Hard Time Pressure were favourites.

It was not until the early 1980s when he began working with mainstream producers such as Sly and Robbie that radio discovered his unique sound, thanks to rockers like Herbmans Hustling and Lovers Race.

Minott did flirt with major labels (Island Records distributed his outstanding Black Roots album) but was always more comfortable being a freelancer in the mould of his heroes Ellis, Holt and Brown. Like them, he recorded profusely and left a massive catalogue.

Local radio has played many songs from that archive since his passing. In death, Sugar Minott finally got the respect he desperately yearned.