https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/12/...ml?action=click&module=Latest&pgtype=Homepage
The first to use the word reggae on a record, he sang in a soulful tone and wrote songs with subtle social commentary, helping bring the sounds of Jamaica to the world.
Mr. Hibbert holds a firm spot in Jamaica’s musical pantheon as the first artist to use the word reggae on a record, on the rollicking 1968 single “Do the Reggay” by his group, the Maytals. By some accounts, it was an accidental coinage — Mr. Hibbert has said he was thinking of “streggae,” local slang for a promiscuous woman — but it stuck, branding the new sound that would become Jamaica’s greatest cultural export.
Toots was 77. No cause of death has been released.
The first to use the word reggae on a record, he sang in a soulful tone and wrote songs with subtle social commentary, helping bring the sounds of Jamaica to the world.
Mr. Hibbert holds a firm spot in Jamaica’s musical pantheon as the first artist to use the word reggae on a record, on the rollicking 1968 single “Do the Reggay” by his group, the Maytals. By some accounts, it was an accidental coinage — Mr. Hibbert has said he was thinking of “streggae,” local slang for a promiscuous woman — but it stuck, branding the new sound that would become Jamaica’s greatest cultural export.
Toots was 77. No cause of death has been released.
