Lincoln Barrington “Sugar” Minott was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1956. He had a successful career until his untimely death on 10th July 2010, dying at the age of 54. His musical journey saw him progress and flourish from life as a box boy and selector, to later become a record producer, guitarist, percussionist, vocalist, talent scout, youth worker and even a pioneer of styles that permanently shaped reggae and dancehall music.
After having already been a selector and later creating his own sound system ‘Gathering of Youth System’, Minott’s vocal career took form when he joined ‘The African Brothers‘ in 1969. The group had several hits and worked closely with many of the most accomplished musicians in Kingston. Shortly after the group splitting to pursue solo careers of their own, he began working as an apprentice producer with Clement “Coxsone” Dodd at Studio One, progressing quickly to recording his own solo singles. With hits such as ‘Mr Dc’ and ‘Hang On Natty’, something special was in full flow. It was also around this time that he took a path that lead him to become a true pioneer of style. It was becoming common practice at this time for vocalists to sing over previously released 1960’s instrumental tracks at live shows, but no one until this point had recorded in this manner. He created this truly unique and now commonly accepted style, that lives on within dancehall and reggae music today.
A string of successful releases in Jamaica lead up to his 1978 debut solo LP ‘Live Loving’, which set the bar for dancehall singers of the time. A year later he released the LP ‘Black Roots‘ with one of the tracks from the album, entitled ‘Hard Time Pressure’ becoming a huge UK hit. Due to the success of tracks in the UK he moved to Britain, where he discovered and worked with an array of musicians creating hits with groups such as ‘Musical Youth’ and many others. He returned to Jamaica just in time to wow crowds at the 1983 Reggae Sunsplash Festival, and to develop his own record label ‘Black Roots’, which worked in conjunction with his ‘Youth Promotion’ project. He travelled the world touring and continued to collaborate extensively. Beside from his own career, Sugar Minott cultivated and encouraged new talent throughout his various youth projects, which he set up with the aim to “help youth from going though the same struggle as me”.