The news that reggae singer Lincoln "Sugar" Minott passed away suddenly of a heart problem at the too-young age of 54 was saddening. What Sugar brought to Jamaican music over the past three and a half decades cannot be replaced. His contribution was not only musical; he was a vital part of the community, always connected to ordinary folk. He fostered young talent and was widely known as a generous man. With his trademark quasi-derby hat and gap-toothed grin, Sugar was a benign, positive presence on a scene that has too often been shaped by negative, destructive elements.
Sugar Minott was in many ways the prototypical dancehall singer. Let me explain what I mean by that . After all, sound system dances have been an important part of the Jamaican music scene since the Fifties, before ska, before rocksteady, before reggae. The scene has been defined by the sound system dances which catered to the masses. They were usually held out of doors, in open air clubs, in open land, or in the street. Often the admission was cheap or free so it has been the main entertainment available to poor folk. Singers and dee jays would try their skills at these sound system dances, develop their performing styles there and make their names there, often long before they ever recorded an officially released recording. And the dancehall has been its own community, every sound system having its retinue of selector, dee jays, singers, technicians, equipment handlers, and hard-core fnas who follow the "sound" wherever it goes. There's always the "rude boys" profiling, the girls (in recent timers known as "dancehall queens") breaking out some outrageous dance moves and costumes, a multitude of vendors selling food, herb and what not. It is an arena, where the happenings of the community have traditionally been aired, commented upon and interpreted. Around the late Seventies, recordings in Jamaica began to be produced specifically with the dance-hall in mind. Of course there had been for years "dub-plates" produced for play only at the dances and gradually a production style evolved that itself came to be known as "dancehall." IT was a sparser, heavier sound than classic reggae, dominated by drum and bass with other musical elements weaving in and out, heavily echoed. It was music designed for maximum effect over the powerful outdoor sound systems. Sugar Minott evolved his style in symbiosis with this sound. It's no accident that his first recordings were for Cosxone Dodd's Studio One, the pre-eminent source of classic dance hall rhythms.
Sugar's style was immediately identifiable. His smooth tenor, easy delivery and melodic flow was like a Jamaican transmutation of Sam Coke. It was a sweet sound, hence his nickname "Sugar." He was amazingly consistent and as a result vitually everything he did simply sounded good. But, if there was a drawback to his style is that it could be bland or samey if he didn't have a distinctive song or rhythm to work with. But given the right ingredients, Sugar could be magical.
A fair amount of Sugar's recordings referenced the dancehall itself--songs such as "Lick Shot" (referring to the habit of certain dancehall fans firing their guns in the air when they heard something they particularly liked), "Buy Off The Bar", "Rub-A-Dub" and many others. His referencing of dancehall culture also worked to make him the preminent dancehall singer of teh late Seventies/early Eighties.
But Sugar was incredibly prolific, most often via his own Black Roots label (named after his own Black Roots sound system) but also with other major producers. Songs such as "Herbsman Hustling" (done with Sly & Robbie), the UK crossover pop hit "Good Thing Going", the heavy roots of "Chant A Psalm", and the liquid message song "Babylon" were just a few of his many classics. My personal favorite among Sugar's albums was the roots-oriented "African Girl", whcih was given to me in 1979 by Tad Dawkins when I made one of my regular stops at Tad's Records up on White Plains Road in the Bronx, searching for new releases to play on my radio show. Aside from "African Girl" it had "Chant A Psalm" and a fair amount roots material.
Sugar Minott has passed on. But his legacy--both as an artist and a man--lives on in the hearts and minds of anyone who loves Jamaican music and culture.
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