Patricia “Miss Pat” Chin has a hearty laugh at 84, her politics may be interpreted as a right leaning capitalist, evidenced by the way she recalls fond memories of former Prime minister Edward Seaga in contrast to how she speaks of the socialist 1970s, when Jamaica was a pawn in the cold war between the Soviets and the US. She also speaks well of all the artist she has worked with over the years, even the ones who currently have lawsuits for outstanding royalty payments. She told World Music Views she loves to keep things positive and recalls things being so tumultuous on the island that she and her husband Vincent had to pack up her record shop and flee to America.
Along with the late Vincent Randy Chin, (A Hakka Chinese son of a carpenter who left mainland China for Cuba, and then settled next door in Jamaica during the 1920s,) they have built a music empire against all odds from the streets of Kingston to the top of the Billboard charts.
In her book My Reggae Music Journey, From Mento, Ska, Rocksteady, Reggae To Dancehall Miss Patt remunices on her rebelious days when her father wanted her to become a bank worker.
“But that rebellious streak in me was slowly awakening. I admit that I never liked conformity. In fact, I had strug- gled with it in school. I told my parents that I wanted to become a nurse so that I could help the sick like my idol, Mother Teresa, and promptly began a correspondence course yesterday’s equivalent of an online course—with a school in England.” –My Reggae Music Journey, From Mento, Ska, Rocksteady, Reggae To Dancehall.
VP records, the company her and her now deceased husband built, boasts the biggest reggae catalogue, consisting of music from almost every notable reggae and dancehall artists over the last 40 years including superstars such as Sean Paul, Shaggy, Beenie Man, Dennis Brown, Gyptian, Beres hammond and hundreds of other artists.
As a teenager in the early 1950s, Vincent Randy Chin oversaw the stocking and maintenance of jukeboxes in the island’s bars for Syrian-Jamaican businessman Isaac issa, but Randy had bigger visions than stacking Jukeboxes.
Miss Patt shares her story candidly with World Music Views, which is inextricably linked to Randy, but her perspective, contribution and careful assessment of the condition of the Jamaican people and how they use music to communicate, has certainly aided in her and their success. A gentle giant of a woman who is bent on championing the cause of other women in reggae music, but her influence goes accross genders and genres. DJ Kool Herc, the founder of Hip Hop describes her as: “What Berry Gordy was to Motown Records, what Russell Simmonds was to Def Jam Recordings, what Sylvia Robinson was to Sugar Hill Records, what Clive Davis was to Arista Records Patricia Chin is to the Reggae Industry and VP Records.”
Even with all the praises she has certainly earned in her 65 year carerr, she acknowledges that in order to improve the industry more discipline is required in the way reggae and dancehall artists conduct business with the record labels.
We talked for about an hour as the sun perfecty angled for 12 O’clock under a shade at the Spanish Court Hotel in New Kingston.
Tell me about the Chinese connection to Jamaican music as far as you are concerned.
My friend Josh Chamberlain came to Jamaica to study how the sound system was developed fifty to sixty years ago; how were the Chinese so influenced by sound system?
The story is the Chinese shop is the meeting place for everybody, they come and sell fruits and vegetable, children play on the Chinese shop paza(show front). The young Chinese kids play with the black Chinese kids, we didn’t know anything about color. Chinese and a whole didn’t sing but the blacks were singers so, they(this Chinese) would maybe do the sound systems and they(black people) did the singing. As a teenager the first thing you want a girlfriend, then your music then your car.
You decided to sell records out of a ‘Jukebox’? What is a Jukebox and how did you get into the business of it?
How I got in the business? My husband, God bless his soul wherever he is, he use to work with the Jukebox company and then changed the old records from the Jukebox, we didn’t have reggae music at that time, just American R&B, Percy Sledge, Jim Reeves, Sam Cooke, those type of music and when he changed out those old records, we bought them out from the company and then we start to sell those old Jukebox records down East Street about 70 years ago. Jukebox on a whole was a way of entertainment in the bars, restaurants, the clubs, and a little corner store. People would go and punch a 25 cents, a 10 cents and get five records and that was a form of entertainment for them.
This was like streaming, it’s the same formula where you pay an amount for music, only now you get 90 million songs?
Another thing when you touch on the Chinese and the Jamaican blacks, the same way the Chinese shop was a community base where people would go and credit, the China man couldn’t talk English, and ‘blacks’ couldn’t talk Chinese. So him write a piece of paper and stick it on pon a nail and them credit, so that was the beginning of face recognition, the face was how they knew how to pay when they come back a month’s time(laughs.)
Let’s talk about VP Records, where and how did you start, and how did you get to New York City?
We started Randy’s Records, we started a used records store, then we did so successfull we moved to 17 North Parade where the bus stop and everything is, then I went to West Indian Records. Eddie Seaga owned West Indian Records, then I bought one Percy Sledge, and one Jim Reeves. He would remember me after 40 years and I asked him ’how do you remember me?’ and he said ’cause you a the only woman who come buy one one record’(laughs).
I bought one turntable, one brush, one needle, and when i sell it I go buy one more, that’s how it started and we stayed there for 20 years and my husband build a studio. From a small 10′ by 10′ space we buy out the restaurant because we had just rented a little space in the restaurant. Two year after we buy out the next door store and my husband build studio 17. There were more studios around but they were outta town and they were expensive. So when my husband started out there was such a need for the young singers and musicians, his love for people was there and for the community.
How did you know reggae music was worth the investment?
I don’t think we knew. Jamaica on a whole they love to sing, we sing when we happy, we sing when we sad, we sing when we curse each other, when politics time comes around I curse you and you curse me in words. We sing at church, we sing when we working so we are just gifted with singing and we saw the need. We just did it as an experiment and it developed and make money.
England was the first to make us know we had something good, because the people who migrated to England, took their music and their sound systems with them. So they developed the hit for the music more than us and when they know the hit they send back to buy the real music. When my husband made “Fattie Boom Boom” and “Independence Jamaica”, it was a hit born in England before we knew it was a hit. When you migrate you carry your music, and your food and your culture.
In 1977, when there was political unrest and then we migrated and went to the US and we didn’t know about color, we didn’t know about certain jobs. We looked all around to find a place to put up shop and send the kids to school and we chose Jamaica Queens cause it reminds us so much of our home. We started doing the same thing, and that’s 45 years doing the same thing that we started 60 years ago.
Who are some of the best artists you have worked with?
All of them is good(Laughs). Dennis Brown, Gregory Isaac, Sizzla, Israel Vibration, all of them, they are just nice beautiful people. They go through struggles like myself when they put out their money and they don’t make a hit, but so it go, everybody have them bad days. (we) Just have to overlook it, just have a lotta patience and understanding. At one time the majors come down and signing people and giving them big money, we couldn’t afford that, cause our investment is to sign new artists coming up, evolve with the music, so after a time they realize they couldn’t manage them. You have to really born here and understand the people, the suffering they go through and how they feel at times, and to be there for them.
Artists have an antagonistic relationship with record labels, you have a couple people who have lawsuits against VP, how do you suggest artists and labels find a balance of power?
Well time has changed, technology has changed and they can produce and sell their own records, but with experience how do you collect your royalties? Which company wants to deal with you. It’s not only selling, its how you collect your royalty. As we go along and develop new singers and artists, I think the most educated artist is the one who has gone through cycles and understands how the music industry works and doesn’t think reggae is selling all of America.
Bob Marley is the one that opened the door for us, that is why he is such a legend, but reggae is not selling the whole world. With the more experience and education they have, they realize it’s a business. If I wasn’t fair and understanding for 60 years I wouldn’t be here. I’ve always taught my children, be fair in whatever you do. if you sign a contract even if you love your signature should make a difference.
Sean Paul told me the early days at VP helped him and that deal with Atlantic helped to push him out even though he doesn’t currently own his masters. Do you think there are lessons that VP could share with him now, to help him with his new label deal?
It’s a learning curve for my own company as well as Sean Paul, we had a little difficulty because back then it was handshake we didn’t have the lawyers. Somebody asked us how do you take so long to put out my record, we have to dot the ‘T’ and put the right things in place. That’s why we slow down in producing and distribution. it’s a learning curve for everyone and we just have to wish them the best. We still have good relationship, they come and they go and we wish them the best. What we can do for them is very small compared to the big majors.
Do you see another ’Sean Paul’ now among the new dancehall acts?
My grandson is working on a different type of music but still reggae. They just need to have passion and work hard. I am not a good projector, but I follow my instinct and try to do the best I can each day.
Tell me about your new book.
I wrote the book 3-4 years ago, because of the pandemic I couldn’t come to Jamaica but now I am on a book tour. Its at the airport bookshops and hotels, on VPreggae.com and its on Amazon. The proceeds go to the VP foundation and I hope to spread the culture across the world.
What will readers learn from the book?
I hope they learn about the struggle I went through as a woman in the music business. Some of the beautiful things that happen to me and how I see reggae music. They will see a lot of the artists who came through at Randy’s Mart.
Did you meet Bob Marley?
Yes, Bob Marley would pass looking for his friend Skill Cole to play football. He was very reserved. Chris Blackwell was there on the sidewalk, he would pass with his records under his arm. It was an exciting time for the music as well as the country. It was a time of renewal in independence. I have seen it right through from mento to ska, to rocksteady, drum and bass, lovers rock, reggae to dancehall. I have seen the different formats from a little 45, to LP, to cassette, to cd, to digital downloads to streaming and we don’t know what the next format will be, but I know reggae music will be at the forefront.
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