Meet the godmother of reggae, Patricia “MISS PAT” Chin of VP Records
Standing at around 4 feet 11 inches, 84-year-old Patricia Chin at first presents as an unassuming figure. In reality, she is one of the giants of Caribbean music — a co-founder of the largest independent reggae record label in the world, a label that transformed the reggae music industry forever.
Her company, VP Records — named for Vincent (her late husband) and Patricia Chin — has been a launching pad for international Caribbean music icons like Sean Paul, Beres Hammond and Maxi Priest. Today, Miss Pat, as she is popularly known, rubs shoulders with mega-stars like Snoop Dogg, a reggae music fan who briefly adopted the Rastafarian-inspired name Snoop Lion, among others.
At the sunset of an extraordinarily accomplished life, she spends her time supporting the charitable Vincent and Patricia Foundation and promoting her recently published memoir. But the colorful story she shares in its pages began more than 60 years ago in Kingston, Jamaica.
Reggae Roots
As a young man, Vincent “Randy” Chin had amassed a collection of discarded 45s and LPs from his work with a jukebox company. In 1958, he and his wife, Patricia, opened up a tiny record shop called Randy’s. The location became a hotspot for the latest releases from local artists and naturally, it seemed, a recording room opened upstairs soon after, in 1965. Studio 17 provided a precious production venue for a generation of stars that would come to define Jamaican popular music.
Chin casually recounts stories of artists like Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Gregory Isaacs, Dennis Brown, Lee “Scratch” Perry and Niney the Observer hanging around the studio and shop. “When they were doing a record, if they wanted a musician, they would call downstairs and [whoever was available] would get a job, so a lot of people used to hang around there,” she says. “It really was a hub for all musicians and music-related business.”
The songs created at Studio 17 in the early years became the soundtrack for Jamaica at a pivotal moment. “It was an exciting time because, in 1962, we got our independence,” she recalls. “It was a time for renewal — making new music — and Jamaica was really on the cusp of change.”
The island’s music reflected a cultural revolution as the new eras of ska, rocksteady and reggae genres emerged, cementing Jamaica’s identity on the world stage. Many of the artists emerging from Studio 17 gained international recognition, especially in places with growing Caribbean immigrant populations like the United Kingdom and the United States.
Read the article on Island Origins Magazine.
