Died On This Date (July 10, 2010) Sugar Minott / Reggae Legend
themusicsover Lincoln “Sugar” Minott
May 25, 1956 – July 10, 2010
Sugar Minott was a reggae pioneer who began his career during the late ’60s as a member of the African Brothers. Their early recordings are noted to have shown the Rastafaris’ influence on the development of reggae music. Minott soon went to work at Coxsone Dodd’s legendary Studio One as a back up musician, singer and overall apprentice, eventually branching out to make his first solo records there. His recordings of the late ’70s and early ’80s are considered some of the biggest influences on reggae’s dancehall scene. He also released several UK charting roots and lovers rock style records throughout the ’80s. Meanwhile, Minott operated one of Jamaica’s most popular sound systems which was set up in public parks and afforded countless young reggae artists their first opportunities to perform in front of an audience. He also produced records by the likes of Daddy Freddy, Horace Andy and Barrington Levy. Others with which he collaborated were Sly & Robbie and Mikey Dread, to name a couple. Sugar Minott was 54 when he died in a Kingston hospital. Cause of death was likely due to a heart conditioned he suffered from.
Thanks to Craig Rosen at Number 1 Albums for the assist.
What You Should Own
Mikey Dread started his career in music as an engineer at the JBC, the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation. At the time, the station was broadcasting mostly foreign pop songs, so Dread convinced the higher-ups to give him his own program which he called Dread At The Controls. It eventually became the most popular show on the network. One group of fans of the show were the Clash who invited Dread to England to produce some tracks on their 1980 release, Sandinista! as well as to tour with them through Europe and beyond. Throughout this time he was building his own audience as a respected singer and performer. In his later years, Dread grew disillusioned with the record industry so he quietly retired and went back to school to study electronics and business in his new home city of Miami. This paid off as he was able to regain the rights to his music which he began re-releasing on his own label. In October of 2007, it was announced that he was being treated for a brain tumor. He passed away surrounded by his family at his Connecticut home on March 15, 2008.
