Sugar, if we take it all the way back to the time before you became a vocalist, you worked as a sound system selector for a while. Do you still select these days?
Sugar Minott: "It happens. Whenever we string up Youth Promotion Sound, I'm there. I still play records, though, because these days everybody seems to play CD's."
Tony (Tuff, red.) and you used to meet at a street corner in Kingston.
Sugar Minott: "Yeah, that was on Delamere Avenue and Delacree Road. Lots of artists used to meet up there; people like Triston Palmer, Soul Syndicate, John Holt. There's a famous yard there we used call Tony Martin Corner, where we just used to sit and play guitar and sing along and it was also there that I met up with Derrick Howard and we formed African Brothers."
The vocal style of African Brothers is often compared to that of The Abyssinians. Do you agree with that comparison?
Sugar Minott: "Yeah, I regard The Abyssinians as the foundation of that style of singing and I can only take it as a compliment when people want to put us in the same category as them."
African Brothers supposedly split up because of financial difficulties rather than anything else.
Sugar Minott: "Well, when we started out we were well taken care of by Mike Johnson (Michael Johnson, red.) of Micron Music. Just about everything we wanted in those days was alright, but in the end things fell apart and we decided it would be wiser to pursue solo careers. Personally, I didn't feel too bad about it at the time, because I had tons of material I wanted to release, but had only limited space and time in the whole band thing. We never fell out though, like so many other bands did."
As a solo artist you started out at Studio 1, where you met Jackie Mittoo, the man you still consider to be your mentor.
Sugar Minott: "Yeah man, Jackie was the man responsible for some of my greatest hits: 'Good Thing Going', 'Sufferer's Choice', 'Roots Lovers' and so on. He was without a doubt one of the greatest musicians Jamaica has ever known and was almost singlehandedly responsible for dozens of killer Studio 1 riddims, launching not only my career but also that of Alton Ellis, Dennis Brown, John Holt and so many others. God bless his soul."
Talking to Sugar Minott means talking about Youth Promotion. As an artist, you might just as well have taken the road of just taking care of your own career, but you chose to give something back.
Sugar Minott: "Well, I've always been taking care of my own career as well, you know. After leaving Studio 1, I produced the 'Ghetto-Ology' album by myself. Some other young artists in the area got wind of that and before I knew, it there was this buzz going round: "Sugar Minott is doing his own thing!" and these kids started flocking my place! (laughs) You had Barry Brown, Triston Palmer, Little John, Rod Taylor and so on, all waiting for a chance to start a career as a singer. Youth Promotion was nothing I really planned, it just kind of happened, but I quickly realized there was strength in unity as well. Without Youth Promotion I would have been a singer like so many others, but building this organisation has given me a history that goes far beyond my own person."
One of the youths that started his career under your wings was Garnet Silk, who recorded his first tune for you. What do you remember about those days?
Sugar Minott: "Garnet was a youth that came down with Tony Rebel, trying to get some exposure for themselves on the Youth Promotion sound system. One day, he came up to me and said, pointing to a stack of 45's: "Father I would just like to hear my voice on one of those!", so we put out the song called 'No Disrespect'. He was still going by the name Bimbo in those days."
You're also one of the very few reggae artists that managed in the course of their careers to cover all the different bases of the genre, from roots over lovers rock to dancehall. Doesn't that take a lot of versatility to be able to do that?
Sugar Minott: "Well, three of my main influences were Alton Ellis, Ken Boothe and Dennis Brown; three singers with a very different style of singing. By being as versatile as I could be, I was mainly trying to please as many people as possible and also, I didn't want to repeat myself all the time. If someone would request me to do a complete loversrock album, I could do that, but to me as an artist that would get boring quite quickly. Variety is the spice of life you know! (laughs)"
Without a doubt the biggest hit tune of your career is 'Good Thing Going', a tune originally performed by Michael Jackson.
Sugar Minott: "Michael only had a hit with that song in the States, it didn't really cross over to Europe and because most people in Europe hadn't heard it before, they thought I was the one who wrote it. (laughs) It was Roy Allen from Hawkeye Records in London who came over to Jamaica and asked me to do a cover version. I voiced the song and then I didn't hear from them again for months, when suddenly they contacted me to tell me the track was a smash hit in the UK."
All of a sudden you were catapulted onto the mainstream music scene, performing on Top Of The Pops...
Sugar Minott: "Yeah that was the worst time of my life! (laughs) Before that my career had all been about the music, but now it was all business and truthfully I wasn't ready for it. It wasn't a nice time, because when money is mentioned, people often tend to get greedy. Of course in hindsight it has been a godsend for my career, but I had to go through hell to get there. It's also from that time that I've limited my shows, because I can only be in so many places in a limited amount of time and still deliver quality."
It was also during that period that you spent living in the UK that you discovered a band that would become huge, Musical Youth.
Sugar Minott: "That's the Jackie Mittoo connection again. When I had the smash hit with 'Good Thing Going', I went to Canada to record the album for RCA with Jackie. There I met up with Tony Owens, who was Musical Youth's manager at the time and whom I had already met whilst spending some time in Birmingham. I liked the band and decided to take them on the road with me as a support act to give them some exposure. Now of course Jackie Mittoo is the one who created the Full Up riddim, so it was he who suggested they do a version of 'Pass The Kutchie' which they changed to 'Pass The Dutchie' to avoid the ganja connection."
There's this famous saying: "You shouldn't judge a book by its cover." I know you are true to the Rastafarian philosophy, but what does that mean for you?
Sugar Minott: "I'm a Christian like His Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie I, but at the same time I will recognise each and everyone's right to freedom of belief, because wherever you get your strength or your power from that's alright for me. Rastafari is my culture; it's my way of life. Some people define Rastafari by the dreads you wear, but everybody can grow dreads; it's about the food you eat, the way you walk and the way you talk and what you believe in: cultural, spiritual and natural things. Some people can live by all I've just mentioned, but still lack the love in their heart and in the end it's all about love. A true Rastafarian should be like His Majesty, a Christian of the orthodox faith. I burn religion still though, because religion is division. Jah can reveal himself to man in many different ways. Big up Belgium and all the crew and crew out there!"