VP RECORDS CELEBRATES JAMAICA 50!

VP Records will release a double compact disc celebrating Jamaica’s 50th year of Independence. Titled Out Of Many: Fifty Years of Jamaican Music, it is scheduled to be released in late July.

Aaron Talbert — head of sales and marketing at the Queens, New York, company — told Splash that the album will contain songs released by VP and Randy’s, the company that preceded VP in the early 1960s.

Joseph Hill

Heading the list of songs is Independent Jamaica by Trinidadian singer Lord Creator. The calypsonian recorded the song in 1962 to mark Jamaica’s Independence from Britain in August that year.

Independent Jamaica was produced by Vincent ‘Randy’ Chin, founder of Randy’s. Chin not only operated a competitive label, but a thriving studio in downtown Kingston where some of the best musicians and artists recorded.

In the 1970s, the Chin family moved to New York City where they opened VP Records, which is now one of the leading reggae outlets in the world.

Out Of Many also includes classic songs produced by independent producers, such as Take It Easy (Hopeton Lewis), Double Barrel (Dave Barker and Ansell Collins), Westbound Train (Dennis Brown), Two Sevens Clash (Culture), Ice Cream Love (Johnny Osbourne), Telephone Love (JC Lodge), Mr Loverman (Shabba Ranks), Can’t Stop A Man (Beres Hammond), Get Busy (Sean Paul) and Hold You by Gyptian.

Talbert said VP will also release a 20-year double set of its popular Reggae Gold compilation series on June 19, four days before International Reggae Day. That album has 32 songs, including 16 of the songs that appeared on the series since it debuted in 1992.

VP Records has released albums by leading reggae performers during the last 25 years. The company has outgrown its independent status by working with major labels like Atlantic Records and Elektra Records to produce big-selling projects by Sean Paul, Shabba Ranks, Beenie Man and Gyptian.