Sugar Minott

Jamaican dancehall music of the early 80s is too often overlooked. There was and still 
may be a feeling outside Jamaica that reggae died with Bob Marley, but that couldn't 
have been further from the truth. The sound changed, but the heartbeat remained, 
although driven by the sparse 'drum and bass' sound of the Roots Radics. Among reggae 
aficionados, the legacy of early 80s dancehall is secure, in significant part due to the 
contributions of Lincoln "Sugar" Minott.

Sugar Minott was probably an obvious artist to attain success and make an impact at 
that juncture in the music's history, because he had paid his dues and paid attention 
starting in 1974 at Coxson Dodd's Studio One - reggae's de facto college. At Studio 
One, Minott's two albums, Live Loving and Sugar Minott Showcase, rejuvenated stock 
rhythm tracks from the rock steady/early reggae era.

Minott's recording career actually started in 1969 as a harmony singer with the African 
Brothers trio (Tony Tuff, Sugar Minott, Derek Howard), which included approximately 
a dozen singles (recently collected by Easy Star as Want Some Freedom). His early 
exposure to soundsystems around his West Kingston neighborhood ensured a passionate 
interest in reggae, but in typical Jamaican fashion, a broader interest in American music 
permeated his taste. "I used to really like the ballads like The Miracles [and] Delfonics," 
recalls Minott. "I like Temptations . . . Nat King Cole, Sam Cooke, ballads really . . . Then 
for a while Alton Ellis . . . we're talking about the greatest voice around them time, he 
cover every kind a music. And then in later years now, when I start come into the music 
really, I still have to give credit to Dennis Brown, cause he was a youth figure, [and] he 
used to inspire me a lot. The Heptones, Carlton and The Shoes, Abyssinians . . . melodic 
kind of thing, Studio One, I grow up on that."

"I was born beside a dancehall. My house was beside a dancehall. When I was small I was 
there into the music all day and night . . . It was my first source of inspiration towards 
the music . . . living beside the dancehall, just listening Sir Coxsone Sound and all the 
other sounds."

The African Brothers freelanced for various producers, but never found a major opportunity. 
It would be Minott's solo move to Studio One in 1974 that provided the musical education 
he needed for his eventual breakthrough. "Coxson used to pass where [African Brothers] 
rehearse on Delamore Avenue, and he used to listen to us and say, 'You check me anytime.' 
We actually did one song for him as a group, a song called 'No Cup No Broke.' So after 
[that] we decide to go solo, because of the hardship we try it individually, so I went to 
Coxson. That was '74, '75. I really meant to stay there for a year still but . . . picking 
up so much vibes and so much good musicians like Pablove Black, and Bagga Walker, 
and Freddie McGregor, all them kinda man.

"[Coxson Dodd] is a man who would give you opportunity, when nobody else would listen. 
That's what I respected about him. It was like a college . . . You're not even thinking about 
the royalties. That was a stepping stone, a learning process, so I don't even grieve about 
that."

Minott's output at Studio One was significant because he proved that contemporary 
Jamaican music could be made with older backing tracks, a trend that proved successful 
for artists like Willi Williams, Freddie McGregor and others in the late 70s. "Maybe 
some people had done it before, but I was the first successful artist really to sing on an 
old rhythm, cause at the time Coxson wasn't making so much good rhythm, and there 
was so much good rhythm there before, so I just decide [to] sing on them ones."

In addition to the musical and technical skills he learned at Studio One, Sugar Minott 
realized that ownership of one's intellectual property is essential to controlling one's 
destiny in the music business. Minott thus became one of the most successful producers 
of the 80s, amid a scene dominated by the likes of Henry "Junjo" Lawes, Linval 
Thompson, Prince Jammy and Mikey Dread.

Minott's first recording effort after leaving Studio One in 1979 was the self-produced 
Ghetto-ology album, recorded on a shoestring budget and with the donated musicianship 
of the Soul Syndicate musicians. "I always wanted to produce something for myself," 
recalls Minott. "That was [recorded in] one day, the Soul Syndicate session. One 
lick . . . that day was like nuff herb and food and Jamaican vibes . . . all day, people 
putting them own color in there. . . me couldn't pay no one to overdub the album, so 
we just stay raw. This is my happiest album. Making this was like, yes, excited." The 
final result, released by Trojan in England, would give the singer basis for further efforts, 
which he would launch under the Black Roots flag and associated Youthman Promotion 
soundsystem. 

"The first issue [of the label] was 'Man Hungry,' then 'River Jordan' and '51 Storm' with 
Little John. There was a lot of success in them time. We had Barry Brown 'I'm Not So 
Lucky.' The first song I did when I left Coxson was 'In The Resident' for King Miguel, 
so I was feeling good to go out there and say, 'Look, I'm doing my own thing now.'"
Minott's Black Roots album (Island), the first for his own label, plus the follow-up, Roots 
Lovers, and With Lots of Extra (for Channel One) established him as a major player in 
reggae for the 80s. Minott's vocals found a home in U.K. dancehalls of the period and 
helped establish the "lover's rock" movement - themes of romance and escapism that 
moved away from earlier themes of ghetto suffering and Rasta ideology. "When I came 
there [England], I started all the revolution of 'lovers rock,' cause a couple of people 
used to make it, but when I went to UK, the whole lovers rock scene just get big cause 
I had one of the biggest lovers rock tunes: I did 'This is Lovers Rock' then 'Good Things 
Going,' and I produced people like Carrol Thompson, Winston Reedy, Musical Youth -- me 
and Jackie Mittoo did a lot of things out there."

Minott's cast of associates in the production arena included mostly unknowns, several 
of whom would become great, including Junior Reid, Tenor Saw, Nitty Gritty, Michael 
Palmer, Barry Brown, Ranking Dread, Ranking Joe, Tony Rebel, Little John, Tristan 
Palma, Yami Bolo, Johnny Osbourne, and former African Brothers bandmate Tony Tuff. 
Minott's dedication to launching young talent has always been to his credit, and he is 
acknowledged as the first producer to record the late Garnett Silk. "Lots of artist come 
through Youth Promotions already, Yami Bolo, Jr. Reid, Tenor Saw, Nitty Gritty - me 
could name ten, twenty of them. I`m trying to get things more organized now, cause  . . . I 
guess with our business we didn't have enough people . . . educated really towards the 
business side. Everybody could write the music, everybody could sing the songs, but nobody 
could manage the business side of things. That's the struggle we have so far."

In addition to prolific self-production, Minott continued to record for other producers 
as the years progressed, including Niney The Observer, Tad Dawkins, Lloyd "Bullwackie" 
Barnes, Sly & Robbie, Jammy's, George Phang, Fatis Burrell, Donovan Germain, King 
Tubby's, King Jammy's, Tappa Zukie, Bobby "Digital" Dixon, and others. Minott now 
looks back on a catalog that is 60 albums strong, with nearly 30 self-produced releases.
In 1984 Sugar Minott took his brand of reggae to Japan. He was the first Jamaican to do 
this after Bob Marley, who visited in 1979, and Ernie Smith, who visited in 1972. From 
this experience, he produced Japanese reggae star, Naki. Sugar Minott has remained 
popular in Japan, working with the Takian company and performing at Japansplash.
Minott remained very active throughout the 80s and adapted easily to the change brought 
about by Prince Jammy's "Sleng Teng" rhythm revolution of 1985. While the pros and 
cons of this development can be debated, hindsight shows Jamaican music of the post-Sleng 
Teng era lacks the staying power of that from the previous 20 years. Minott feels the 
most problematic change in dancehalls is the trend away from selecting a mixture of new 
and old music. "Music and artists they have lost respect, I don't like it, but I'm not fighting 
against the music because the time and youths, they're going to be changes -- like in my 
time when we came in with the dancehall style the people didn't like it . . . I understand, 
but in the old days, even when we changed into the dancehall style, we still played Dennis 
Brown, we still played Freddie McGregor, we still played Horace Andy, we still played Ken 
Boothe, we still played Alton Ellis, we still played Burning Spear. Now, they're changing to 
new music but they don't play Frankie Paul, they don't play Sugar Minott, they don't play 
Dennis Brown, they don't play Gregory Isaacs . . ."

As a singer, Minott naturally has concern for the proliferation and domination of the 
deejay style in contemporary dancehall "Right now if you hold an audition, you get three 
singers and 60 deejays. It's up to us to push back some nice music, so the youth know 
where the music come from.

 "I like deejay too, because first time in the dance if the deejay wasn't there . . . U Brown, 
 Josey Wales, Charlie Chaplin, Yellowman, good job, good things. I cannot fight against t
 he deejays, but I just want to say it is no good to have as now 90% deejays and 10% 
 singers, this is the only problem I have. I want to go to the dance and listen to singers too."
"If people a foreign listen to reggae for the first time with Bounty Killa or Beenie Man, 
they say 'I don't like reggae.' The first thing is in deejay the people internationally, they 
don't understand the lyrics cause it's all about Jamaica . . . The deejays of today they don't 
have lyrics, you have to go back to U Roy, Josey Wales, to listen to some good lyrics."
Much of Minott's essential back catalog has appeared on record labels internationally, 
including Heartbeat and Easy Star in the US, the latter of which recently compiled two 
various artists collections of Black Roots productions, the excellent Rare Gems album, 
and the seminal Ghetto-ology, released with its rare companion dub. 

Presently Sugar Minott has established a base at 1 Robert Crescent, Kingston 5 with the 
Youth Promotion Music Center and Black Roots Recording Co, Ltd. with branches in 
New York and Germany. 

Reflecting on his 30-year career in reggae, he says, "I figure music is what I was born for. 
It's just an addiction . . . The business kinda let me down in terms of what it could have 
been . . . I used to believe in the 'humblest calf' business, but it don't work in this 
time . . . Me nah show off or boast, but I have so much to offer for youth and youth in 
music . . . We want to create oneness, one vibes, and one unity, whether you are Rasta 
you are baldhead, you eat pork or you eat calaloo."

--Carter Van Pelt

This bio was written for the Sierra Nevada World Music Festival website (www.snwmf.com) 
and utilized interviews from the following sources.

http://freespace.virgin.net/russell.bell-brown/bslp8e.htm
http://www.vibesonline.net/news/interv/i-sugar.html
Dermot Hussey's Global Beat, RJR, Kingston, Sept 1998.