The exit of this great pioneering Jamaican reggae artist U-Roy was confirmed by his partner.
The entertainment world, especially music and particularly reggae of the 80s and 90s could not have been the same without U Roy. We remember with fervent nostalgia his explosive entrance into the African music pop culture world with his Natty Rebel. No party or club outing was complete without a blast of Go there Natty. His brand of reggae inspired so many of us into the D J industry, as soon as we learnt that he started his musical carreer as a DJ. We also got to know that his kind of reggae was called toasting. It became an immediate hit as a street word in a country like Nigeria where till today, talking to a girl to convince her to be your girl fiend is called Toasting.
The musician, whose real name is Ewart Beckford, had been undergoing surgery at a hospital in Jamaica’s capital city, Kingston.
U-Roy, who is credited with popularising the vocal style known as “toasting”, died late on Wednesday.
Among those to pay tribute were Grammy award-winning artist Shaggy and British singer-songwriter Ghostpoet.
U-Roy’s partner, Marcia Smikle, told local news website The Gleaner that the artist had been receiving treatment for diabetes and high blood pressure, and also suffered with kidney problems.
She said he had been in and out of hospital and most recently had undergone an operation to address an issue of internal bleeding.
“It was successful, and the bleeding stopped,” Ms Smikle said, but the doctors had to take him back into the operating theatre at the University Hospital of the West Indies on Wednesday and he later died.
Following news of U-Roy’s death, tributes began to pour in, with Jamaican reggae artist Shaggy describing him in an Instagram post as a “hero” and a “true legend” who was “a master at his craft”.
