First of all, we appreciate people who have strutted on here, regardless where the wind has been blowin’ (probably from me babbling on facebook). I personally want to thank you for disregarding these major (MAJOR) gaps in between posts, when there’s so much going on IRL. If some of you have eavesdropped on my facebook page hearing me shutting this site down, obviously there are reasons for it: not being able to keep a steady posting frequency, the lack of Best Kept Secret live productions, and this hard-beating plush hammer called the “economy”. Sigh, the current state of it all loses the credential of “real blogging” (whatever that means), and rather slowly becoming an archive of mixes and semi-eclectic compilations. Honestly, I’d rather want it that way. In any case, if you’re here for the music regardless of below-standard blogging practices, cheers to you! Upwards, and onwards as they say…
So speaking of imminent death, there was in no way we were going to dismiss a legend in the reggae community. Sadly here in Los Angeles, a great musician by the name of Lincoln Barrington “Sugar” Minott, died at a tender age of 54, Sunday July 10, 2010. His voice and the productions behind him launched a thousand dancehalls, along with a spectacular skill to write original lyrics, he was a triple-threatening creative force even under the dim times between 1979 and 1984. It makes sense that certain economic conditions can influence a musical movement especially when the early ’80s was financially-crap, world economics still suffered. Its effects trickled down to deejays in the J.A. to use more of the same records using versions and b-sides, and in combination of picking up the mic more often resulted in deejays dominating live situations (hello hip-hop). Yadda-yadda, dancehall was born. I’ll also spare a biography since he has been written up over and over again, even to a point where critics are disputing certain facts minutes after his passing. On top of being a musical innovator through deejaying, toasting, and putting a new genre on the musical map, he sang sweet and powerful lyrics (hence the name, “Sugar”) and launched several labels with productions under him that brought forth OTHER brilliant artists. We’ll just have to drop names to keep this short: AFRICAN BROTHERS, YOUTH PROMOTION, BLACK ROOTS, JAH STITCH, JUNIOR REID, RANKING JOE, RANKING DREAD is one of many musical rocks that set their own weight. And to cap it off, I chose my own personal top-5 Sugar tunes, some of them being:
