ONE LOVE: REGGAE: Chris Chin: CEO VP Records

“Like I was saying a few weeks ago Carter (Van Pelt) was doing a project for VP and interesting enough he asked me, he came across a 45 in his collection that had some inscription on the inside of the record and he was asking me about it, and I asked him to bring it in for me to look at. And when I saw it the handwriting that was mine, and then I started to go back to remember exactly how it happened and I give him the story and he found it interesting. I'd totally forgot about it really to be honest with you but when he brought it in it jogged my memory. It was 1979, I had relocated, I was living in New York from '77 but I would go back to Jamaica from time to time. I remember the time when I went back on this trip - at that time a lot of producers were coming up to me and asking me to master some records for them and to release them. AndI really didn't have any formal training as a mastering engineer, but I've always been into studios and always fascinated with them. So at that trip a friend of my dad's, 

his name was Bill Garnett, was there with me and he was familiar with the process and he kind of taught me on the trip. So, you know, it's a bunch of producers one of them being - he got famous after that - Henry Lawes, known as 'Junjo'. While I was in the store, around this time, he came over and obviously he had a quarter inch two-track tape and he asked me if I could put his records out for him. I didn't know 

who he was really. And you know - in some ways I kind of found him a little bit intimidating because he was kind of a bit .. you know ..look a bit on the rough side. 

But nevertheless I was kind of used to dealing a lot of different people so I said - 'alright cool'. 

And one of the records he brought me was a Barrington Levy record called "A Yah We Deh." So this was probably maybe one of the first seven inch records that I had mastered.There were a bunch of other ones in the same time frame. There was another Barrington Levy, that 'Trinity' produced, I think I did at the same time. Barrington Levy went on to be a big artist, you know, a year or two after. And Junjo became a big producer. Ever since that time, this was the first record ... it was the first time I actually met him we kind of developed a bond and he went on to be a very very big producer in the early eighties, produced all the big Barrington Levy records, Yellowman records, Frankie Paul records, Michael Prophet, "Gun Man," Wailing Souls, you know, so he had a really good run. And we maintained a good relationship throughout the years and he actually had, maybe in the mid eighties - 

early eighties had migrated to the US and, you know, we were here and we kind of fellout a bit since you know until he went back to Jamaica to restart his label 

and at one point he went to England. And, you know, at that point sad to say he was killed, you know, and that's kind of my special vinyl record that meant something to me.” 

Chris Chin: VP Records, Jamaica, NY, 6th February 2019 

Barrington Levy: "A Yah We Deh” - released 1979 

VP Records