Family sets up GoFundMe to assist with preserving Sugar Minott’s legacy
Published:Wednesday | August 16, 2023 | 12:07 AMYasmine Peru/Senior Gleaner Writer
Some of the children of foundation reggae singer, producer and sound system operator Lincoln Barrington ‘Sugar’ Minott are focusing on preserving his legacy by rebuilding his Youthman Promotion organisation.
Led by his daughter Ashanty, a GoFundMe account, which has a goal of US$30,000, has been set up to assist with this project.
“My sister came up with the idea and I thought it was great,” Pashon Minott, singer and the older sister of Ashanty, shared.
“It is important for us to carry on our father’s legacy through this project, based on what Youth Promotion stands for and what our father would want it to be. Daddy has done so much to help, not just in music ... and it’s something that we want to carrry on,” Pashon explained.
She gave the background to the establishment of Youthman Promotion, the offices of which are based at 1 Robert Crescent in Kingston.
“Our father created it to help the youth inside the community ... outside the community.. and worldwide. Persons have been asking me what’s up with Youthman Promotion. They want to help. They have been offering me stuff, so it’s just doing it the right way. [By] putting this up, they now have this channel to go through and donate,” Pashon said.
She emphasised that it is not about hard cash. It is also about volunteering one’s time to move the project forward, adding that “due to the disagreement within the family, certain things freeze up ... so this is our way of doing for Youth Promotion and carrying on the legacy”.
In the GoFundMe intro, Ashanti stated that the non-profit organisation was started by Sugar Minott in 1983 with his sound system Youth Promotion, also known as Youthman Promotion, creating an opportunity for upcoming musicians who needed help to bring their musical dreams to reality.
“Youth Promotion was the first crew in dancehall, which saw Tenor Saw, Garnet Silk, Tristan Palmer, Barry Brown, Tony Rebel, and Junior Reid emerging; just to name a few. To keep this rich legacy alive, we would like some assistance to revamp the Youth Promotion Music Centre, which still operates daily, assisting the youth from surrounding communities and the world. The gate is always open.”
Funds collected will be used for construction repairs, repainting and drawings of murals, studio equipment, and interior decoration.
Sugar Minott, whose catalogue as a singer and producer is vast, originally hailed from Maxfield Park, and later emerged as a selector for the Sound of Silence sound system. He then teamed up with producer Clement ‘Coxsone’ Dodd as a studio apprentice at Dodd’s Studio One, working as a singer, guitarist and percussionist, and soon began recording his own singles.
According to his bio, Minott developed a talent for writing new songs to match existing rhythms (which at the time was common when singers performed live, but rare in the studio), often proving more popular than the original songs, pioneering an approach that would be central to the emerging dancehall style.
After a number of moderately successful hits for Studio One, such as Hang On Natty, Mr DC, and Jah Jah Children, his debut LP Live Loving made his name and increased his popularity, and is regarded as pioneering the dancehall style that would dominate the early 1980s. It was followed in 1979 with a second album, Showcase, which included his singles that had been omitted from the first album.
The Bittersweet album followed, and then the third album of 1979, Ghetto-ology, which saw a return to roots reggae. Roots Lovers (1980) saw a move towards lovers rock, which was a UK hit. He became a bigger star in the UK than in Jamaica. His self-produced Hard Time Pressure became a major UK reggae hit in 1980, leading Minott to relocate to the UK, where he became a focus for UK reggae. Good Thing Going (a cover of a song originally recorded by Michael Jackson in 1971) was picked up for distribution by RCA and reached Number 4 in the UK Singles Chart in March 1981, leading to an album of the same name. The Herbman Hustling album saw a return to dancehall and roots reggae.
Sugar Minott passed away on July 10, 2010 at the University Hospital of the West Indies in St Andrew. He was 54.
In 2019, he was honoured with a Reggae Gold Award by the Jamaican Government for his contributions as artiste and producer. In February, Sugar Minott was honoured with a Mentorship Award for his commitment to youth development by the Jamaica Reggae Industry Association.