What do Sean Paul, Bob Marley, and trombonist Rico Rodriguez all have in common? Aside from the fact that they’re international emissaries of reggae music all three, and countless other Jamaican artists like them, can trace the seeds of their success back to a small ice cream parlor in downtown Kingston. This is where, at the turn of the 1960s, a young Vincent Chin sold second-hand R&B records, salvaged from the jukeboxes he stacked in various bars around town.
This former ice cream store, which Chin renamed Randy’s Record Mart, acted as a hub for the local music scene as rhythm & blues morphed into ska, and Randy’s began stocking and distributing brand new homegrown records. Inevitably, Randy’s launched a label, and Vincent turned his hand to producing early cuts from the likes of Cornell Campbell, The Maytals, and The Skatalites, with the latter group’s trombonist Rico releasing some of his earliest singles on the imprint.
The next logical step was to build a studio at the premises. Vincent and his wife Patricia opened their four-track setup in 1968. It became a crucible for the island’s reggae scene, hosting sessions with everyone from Gregory Isaacs to Johnny Nash. Lee “Scratch” Perry recorded there with The Wailers in 1970, helping them to transform their R&B-influenced style into the homegrown Jamaican sound that would soon conquer the world.
In 1973, the studio expanded to 16 tracks, with Vincent’s teenage son Clive manning the faders. Clive brought keyboardist Augustus Pablo into the studio band, a collaboration that helped mold the burgeoning “roots” sound dominating reggae in the ’70s. The business was expanding, too. As Vincent and Patricia sought to break into the U.S. market, they uprooted to New York, where they set up shop in Vincent’s sister’s Musicland premises, giving their initials to this new venture. It was here in 1978 in Queens, New York that VP Records was officially born.
For many years, much of VP’s output was released on sub-labels, often showcasing a particular producer’s output. The Jah Guidance and Lightning imprints brought the spacious productions of Henry “Junjo” Lawes and Linval Thompson to the U.S., helping to popularize the early ‘80s dancehall sound, particularly amongst ex-pat Jamaicans in NYC where the emerging hip-hop industry had its roots in Jamaican sound system cultures. (VP briefly dabbled in hip-hop themselves in the ‘90s with their short-lived Break A Dawn Records.)
By the mid-‘80s, VP was riding the crest of the new wave of digital dancehall that followed Jammy’s Sleng Teng riddim, bringing a new generation of microphone heavyweights to the U.S. Anthony Red Rose, Courtney Melody, and Cocoa Tea all found a new and eager audience Stateside with hits including “Tempo,” “Ninja Mi Ninja,” and “Just Be Good To Me,” respectively. That’s not to say the Chins had forgotten their roots: One of VP’s biggest hits of the digital era came in 1988 when their old friend Gregory Isaacs recorded “Rumours” over a silky Gussie Clarke riddim, which also would back hits from JC Lodge (“Telephone Love”), Beenie Man (“Lickey Lickey Girl”), and even become a staple amongst British-Asian kids thanks to Bally Sagoo’s bhangra-dancehall crossover “Mera Laung Gawacha.”
In 1989, VP Records would finally step out from the distribution shadows, branding a handful of VP albums from dancehall stars including Tiger, Sugar Minott, and Shabba Ranks, and by the early ‘90s some of their roster were crossing into the mainstream. Shabba Ranks was picked up by Epic and scored an international hit, landing at Number 3 in the UK with “Mr. Lover Man,” while JC Lodge became the first reggae artist signed to hip-hop label Tommy Boy alongside De La Soul and House Of Pain.
As the ‘90s progressed, VP’s chart success continued. In 1997, “Who Am I?” launched Beenie Man—who cut his first record with Juno in 1982 when he was only nine years old—onto the international stage. Mega stardom would soon follow, dueting with Janet Jackson, but not before he destroyed dancehalls with the iconic cry of, “Sim simma, who got the keys to my Bimma?” over the barking ragga B-line of Jeremy Harding’s Playground riddim.
Harding also managed a relative newcomer to the Jamaican dancehall scene. Former athlete Sean Paul was the same age as Beenie Man, but was only on his third release when he cut his own version of the Playground riddim. “Infiltrate” remained an underground bubbler, but after a stack of singles and a licensing deal with Atlantic Records, VP struck gold with Sean when his second LP, Dutty Rock, hit the Top 10 in 14 countries, earning him a Grammy for best reggae album. He’d go on to guest with everyone from Beyoncé to Little Mix.
Ragga and bashment wasn’t VP’s only output by this point, of course. Sizzla, Mavado, and Turbulence have continued to fly the conscious reggae flag, and the label has never stopped releasing roots, dub, and lovers rock records. It remains a family-run business, with Vincent Chin’s children and extended family at the helm, with the assistance of Carter Van Pelt, the mastermind behind Coney Island’s Reggae On The Boardwalk, currently helping to bring this extensive catalog to the digital market 45 years after Vincent and Patricia first set up shop in New York. What follows is a small sampling of the label’s many highlights.
I-Roy & Errol Dunkley
“Created By The Father”
Taken from the first VP 12-inch, back when Vincent and Patricia first moved to NYC, “Created By The Father” features veteran toaster I-Roy revoicing an Errol Dunkley track produced by Clive Chin back in ‘75 for his dad’s label Impact. Dunkley moved to the UK not long after this release and scored a top 20 hit with “OK Fred,” while I-Roy signed to Virgin imprint Front Line, proving that VP had been nurturing future reggae stars from day one.
The Congos
“Fisherman”
Heart Of The Congos boasts a rich tapestry of Scratch’s studio alchemy which, mixed with Cedric Myton and co.’s roots harmonies and clattering nyabinghi drums, feels like eavesdropping on a dadaist rasta grounation. Notable members of the backing band include Sly Dunbar on drums, Gregory Isaacs on backing vocals, and Ernest Ranglin on guitar. Ernest had been working with Vincent Chin since the early ‘60s, around the time he started playing his guitar on the off-beat, inadvertently creating the blueprint for modern Jamaican music.
Lee “Scratch” Perry
“Roast Fish & Cornbread”
This 1978 set was first released in Jamaica by Scratch himself, but got a new lease on life when VP repressed it in 1992. It’s a surreal slice of (semi) dub—improbably slow, and sounding like it could all collapse at any moment. But you know you’re in good hands with Sly Dunbar and Boris Gardner on rhythm section duties.
Johnny Osbourne
“Ice Cream Love”
Osbourne was already over a decade deep into his career when he cut this one with Henry “Junjo” Lawes and the Roots Radics band in 1980. Juno and the Radics would help usher in the dancehall era, dominating both VP and Greensleeves’s output until the digital revolution of the mid-‘80s. Osbourne would go on to revamp this song for Jammy’s a decade later.
Sugar Minott
“Conscious Lover”
Speaking of which, VP released a collection of some of Jammy’s greatest tracks, and a few lesser-known cuts from the digital dancehall years that followed “Sleng Teng” in ‘85. Cries From The Youth includes essential tracks from the likes of Super Cat, Wayne Smith, Junior Delgado, and this one from Sugar Minott which features an early example of the drum pattern that would go on to dominate dancehall to this day.
JC Lodge
“Telephone Love”
JC broke out in 1980 with a lovers-style cover of country singer Charley Pride’s “Someone Loves You Honey,” but by the end of the decade, she was firmly enamored with dancehall. “Telephone Love” gave her an underground hit in the U.S., especially in New York where it crossed over into the R&B and hip-hop market.
Sizzla
“Boom & Go Through”
The biggest track from Sizzla’s album Da Real Thing is obviously “Just One Of Those Days,” but my personal favorite is this Bobby Digital-produced reggae-hip-hop banger. This is probably my favorite of the seven albums he released in 2002.
Elephant Man
“Pon De River, Pon De Bank”
“Who Am I?” by Beaeie Man was a surprise hit in 1997—considering it was straight-up, undiluted ragga—but by the early ‘00s Beenie’s cohorts were all over the charts, representing the extremities of the bashment scene, and VP were behind loads of these releases. Sean Paul had the most clout, but hits like Wayne Wonder’s “No Letting Go,” and this slice of dancehall joy from the self-styled “energy god” Elephant Man defined the era.
Jah9
“Field Trip”
Jah9, aka Janine Cunningham, represents a new generation of VP artists. Her musically diverse productions underpin a versatile vocal range, mixing elements of jazz and poetry with forward-thinking reggae. In fact, this track from her 2020 album Note To Self, heads into Fela-esque afro-funk territories. The Mad Professor meets Jah9 dub session In The Midst Of The Storm is well worth checking too.
The Revolutionaries
“One More Dub”
To celebrate their 40th anniversary on the soundsystem circuit, Greensleeves invited UK’s legendary Channel One Sound to dig through the archives and select some of their favorite tracks that they’ve played through their bone-rattling rig over the years. Heavyweights like Keith Hudson, Linval Thompson, and the Wailing Souls are all accounted for here, with another 10 dub versions for good measure. It’s almost impossible to choose a stand out from such a perfect set, but I thought “One More Dub” wraps things up nicely.
