Billionaire banker Michael Lee Chin, who made his fortune investing in Jamaica’s National Commercial Bank, was once on a path to becoming a major player in the music business, according to his brother Wayne Chen.
Michael and Wayne both grew up in Portland and Manchester, Jamaica, but Lee-Chin saw his wealth grow when he acquired AIC Limited in 1987 with less than $1 million in assets under management and brought it up to $10 billion in assets by 2002, according to Forbes.
The Chin and Chen brothers who are philanthropists and business men were once looking to own the extensive photos, videos and other copyright material archived by Roger Stephens of Bob Marley and other notable reggae figures but deemed the venture to be unsafe. The collection which Stephens curated for over three decades at the time, housed in his California home includes 200,000 memorabilia with over 12,000 records and CDs, 10,000 posters and flyers, and 12,000 hours of tape filling six rooms.
“Mike, at my behest, tried to acquire Roger Steffen’s archive in the early 2000s and put quite a bit of money in, but no agreement was reached,” Wayne Chen told WMV. The archives now over 50 years, was acquired in 2021 by Joe Bogdanovich CEO of Reggae Sumfest who promised to create a museum in Montego Bay to house the unreleased reggae archives into a larger plan that would see the tourist-heavy Montego Bay turned into a concert city.
Lee-Chin’s interest in the music business at the dawn of the millennia when his personal net-worth was $2.4 billion and ranked 216th richest person by Forbes went beyond reggae as he sought audience with top hip hop players that would have resulted in him starting his own label had he proceeded.
“Around the same time, he (Chin) was in discussion with Master P’s former partner/manager about forming a music business. Recall late 1990s-early 2000s Master P’s No Limit was Rap’s biggest indie label. Discussions with Rita Marley were about understanding the nuances of a successful music business. In the end, it was deemed too far from the core business and too risky.” Chen explains.
In 2023, Marley’s brand generated $16 million, landing at No. 9 on Forbes’ list of the highest-earning deceased celebrities. Meanwhile, with Master P no longer at the top of the Hip Hop scene and music asset companies like Hipgnosis Songs Fund grappling with a 50% drop in the value of their music catalog, 72-year-old Lee-Chin’s decision to steer clear of the music business and focus on mutual funds and banking ranks him as the 2141st richest person globally with a net worth of $1.4 billion, according to Forbes. He shows no inclination to invest in the intellectual properties of rap or reggae in the future, even as other venture capitalists clamor for music assets.
Wayne on the other hand, who is the co-author of “Reggae Routes: The Story of Jamaican Music,” still maintains a belief that modern reggae and dancehall possess untapped value, but cautions artists to shift from their culture of entitlement and focus on bringing value.
“Reggae, dancehall, and other genres of music, including ska and dub, originally from Jamaica, are now an important part of global music. Just as Jamaican music was influenced by American soul, Trinidadian calypso, and other genres, we are also, in turn, influencing others. It’s the way of the world. That said, our musicians have to capitalize by creating songs or performing. We have to be good at it, and better than all the others because no one owes us a living,” he says.
Reggae was listed as the 10th most listed genre globally for a second year in a row according to the 2023 IFPI Engaging Music Report and thats largely due to the success of Marley and older artists because the top reggae act on Billboard and Spotify is Bob Marley and The Wailers.
Citing examples in other countries that a modern Jamaican music industry could model, Chen explains to WMV that, “Jamaica may never produce another Bob Marley, but we can produce many more good musicians than we do currently by teaching music in all our primary and secondary schools, and teaching the other skills that support a thriving music industry. There are countries that have done it by state support (e.g., Sweden) or as a business (e.g., Philippines).”
Last year, in October, Prime Minister Andrew Holness announced plans to build a school to train entertainers and musicians. “Yes, there will be a school dedicated to training our upcoming entertainers and deejays and musicians, our visual and creative artists, in the technical and softer points of the entertainment industry because we believe that that is a space that we own and we can exploit for our economic and social development,” Prime Minister Holness told a gathering as he broke ground in Bernard Lodge, St Catherine, for Jamaica’s first Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) Academy. He emphasized that the new artist institution is geared at empowering young people.
Since then, not much has been said or done to make the school a reality, but Wayne picked 12 Jamaican artists who are breaking ground and says with training, the music landscape can once again become more competitive and turn out other world-class artists.
“A few Jamaicans are doing relatively well (Sean Paul, Damian Marley, Shaggy, Beenie Man, Beres Hammond, Protoje, Koffee…Masicka, Skillibeng, Spice, Shenseea, Skeng), but there could be many more, with the long-term investment in infrastructure and education/training,” Chen professed.
At Sting 2023, a fight broke out on stage between two newcomers; Fully Bad and Honormosity, which saw them being arrested and charged for public disorder. Chen said that was the epitome of the problem with Jamaican music because although many artists are emerging on the scene with the advent of YouTube and other streaming platforms, the current crop of dancehall artists do not have lasting value due to their limited scope of the industry, discipline, and subject matter.
“As for the current state of dancehall, very little of lasting value is being produced locally. Money is being earned by a few, but we are way below our potential. I don’t want to be the old fogey, but the finale of Sting yesterday epitomized the current challenge,” he said, adding, “There’s a lot more value in reggae and dancehall to be exploited by Jamaicans. We have to step up our game in all aspects. Not enough creativity – dancehall is stuck in a rut (guns, sex, chopping) and reggae is recycling its past. There are exceptions, but too few.”
Marley Legacy
The Superplus CEO reflects on Rita Marley as a beacon of light that upheld the Marley legacy after his death. “Bob left no will and multiple baby mothers. It could easily have fallen apart. Rita saw the big picture and acted wisely. Highly under-appreciated. Compare the Marley legacy to other Jamaican properties (e.g., Tosh, Coxsone), indeed to any global standard, and one will understand how she has allowed the brand/legacy to be leveraged to its maximum potential and continue to be a big money spinner for 40+ years,” he explained.
Rohan Marley had explained how it was Chris Blackwell who put up the money to buy Marley’s music rights after his death as they were at risk of losing it to buyers like Michael Jackson who the Marley family had approached to lend them the money. That aside, Chen says it’s Rita’s remarkable matriarchal leadership that should be credited most for not letting the Marley legacy fall by the wayside.
“Blackwell gets most of the credit, but he couldn’t have done it without Rita. I was reminded of that recently when I posted about Cindy and people were beating me up for ‘glorifying’ Bob’s mistress. They don’t realize that the Marley musical ‘Get Up, Stand Up,’ which I saw in London, has Cindy as one of the lead characters and lists Rita and Cedella as Executive Producers (?). Rita has risen far above baby mother politics,” he said.
In light of Max Romeo’s lawsuit against Universal, Burning Spear calling record labels dishonest on his latest Grammy-nominated album “No Destroyer” for not paying royalties, and Steely and Clevie estate sweeping lawsuit against reggaeton artists and producers, Wayne, who is also a lawyer, says Jamaican musicians never focused on intellectual property.
“Many Jamaican musicians didn’t understand enough about intellectual property value and its potential for long-term dividends, vs collecting a small upfront or accepting nothing more than the opportunity to record a hit song that would raise their profile for live performances. Not much different in other markets at the time. Nowadays some know better and the courts give them a fighting chance to recover what they once gave away,” he said, “Education and training are the way to go for future generations. The legal and institutional framework are fairly well-established, but useless if the musicians aren’t accessing them.”
