Family moves to secure Sugar Minott's Legacy

Reggae singer Sugar Minott passed away close to eight years ago, and since then his family has been determined to secure his musical legacy. As part of their plans to build on his brand, two new albums with never-before-released music from the late artiste are slated to be released by January 2019.

Speaking with The Gleaner in a recent interview, the entertainer's widow, Maxine Stowe, explained that since his death, the family has been looking for ways to build on Minott's legacy but had delays with issues regarding the singer's estate. "Sugar passed in 2010, and eight years later we have been unable to develop his estate. He left without a will, and the administrator general has been completely inadequate in sorting out his estate even, enough for his business to be managed," she said. "An estate has different assets, and one of the assets an artiste would have left would be his company. Even though the estate issues would need sorting out, the company that would have been managing ongoing projects would have been allowed to go forward while they sort out what needs to be sorted. However, with this case, they have not done that and it's becoming a problem for his intellectual property, his music. I had to, at this point, make a move."

With that said, Stowe noted that the family, though they've had their issues in the past, are now working together with only one goal in mind and that is to build on Minott's brand.

That move will lead to two albums: Maximum Sugar volumes one and two. Volume one is slated for release by October, while volume two is set to be released in January 2019. The songs for both albums were produced by Sly and Robbie as well as the late Clement 'Coxsone' Dodd. The songs recorded for Dodd were done in 2002 in New York, while the Sly and Robbie-produced tracks were done from the 1990s.

Also part of their plans to secure Minott's legacy is a museum. Stowe, who has also done work on Bunny Wailer's Museum, said one for Minott will be brought to fruition as the culture must be preserved. "Minott's museum will not only look at his career, but the history of dancehall. I'm going to be using Sugar like the main actor in a movie but I will be curating a whole history of dancehall music from Studio One, sound systems coming right up to what we now know as dancehall." She is hoping to have the museum up and running by May 2019.