Attorney and former Colombia Records music executive, Maxine Isis Stowe has been at the forefront of reggae and dancehall music for over 40 years. Her late husband is Lincoln ‘Sugar’ Minott, and her uncle is legendary Jamaican music producer Clement Coxsone Dodd. Much of her work has been centered around organizing the estate of both men.
She told the Jamaica Gleaner that Jamaica’s Administrator General’s Department (AGD) does not have the capacity to handle the estates of entertainers, especially where it concerns the management of the intellectual property and businesses that many of Jamaica’s musicians have left behind.
Stowe answers questions in an exclusive interview with World Music Views about her tenure in the industry and her work to change the status quo and some of the narratives long held over the years about reggae and dancehall music.
How long have you been in the music industry?
I have been active in the industry since 1979, when I started with my uncle Clement Dodd in opening and operating his subsidiary company to Jamaica Publishing & Recording Studio Limited/Studio One as Coxsone Music City in Brooklyn, New York.
There are some people who say Sugar Minott was who defined Dancehall, what was it like working with him?
Dance Hall was defined more-so by my Uncle and his peers with the advent of the Sound System in the late 50’s and pioneers such as Count Matchuki, King Stitt and URoy. Sugar who was actually born beside a Dance Hall, Champagnie Lawn Westmoreland, by this history and created the contemporary genre now known as DanceHall following Ska, Rocksteady, Reggae & Dub. This was serendipitous in that he knew all the popular rhythms from being a selector for a Sound and as he transitioned to being a recording artist, was the first artist to re-record on existing rhythms for Mr. Dodd.
After my initiation into the varied Studio One catalog and meeting some of the seminal artists, particularly members of The Skatalites like Roland Alphanso, Jackie Mittoo and Dizzy Johnny Moore, Sugar was the youngest artist I collaborated with. We produced the album ‘Roots Lovers” while at Coxsone and then I went on to work with him and ultimately build a family.
At this early stage of his career I was incorporated into his developing the Youth Man Promotion sound system and stable and his own independent Black Roots label.
I came to now meet all the contemporary artists, producers and studio in the 80’s Dancehall era that he dominated and it established the basis for my success with 90’s dancehall at the major label.
Particularly our work with Kenneth Black at the Skengdon label in Miami, where I met up with Super Cat who became eventually my first artist signing at Columbia Records.
You’ve worked with several dancehall/reggae acts in the past, what the main difference then and now?
Jamaican music overall is influenced by North American urban styles and our Jamaican diaspora. It has significantly impacted the development of Hip Hop that in turn influences various stylistic developments particularly in the DanceHall. My career and success is rooted in the Diaspora so I have developed a unique vantage point in my transition & focus into Jamaica over the the last 20 years.
I don’t see many major differences between then and now as the structural challenges remain constant. There is just massive cross fertilization occurring and I have been more focused on how our Intellectual Property Rights development can achieve benefits and economic inclusion through our mostly informal global wealth creation.
How would you describe Bunny Wailer?
I met Bunny in 1977 just as my career was being organically curated to take shape in the music industry. I had actually been in University in New York studying and being involved in Afro Centric political economy studies and trends.
I was introduced to him by Ras Daniel Heartman, a Rastafari personality that I was sojourning with for about a year and a half and who also at this same juncture introduced me to my Uncle Clement Dodd who I had never met until this time, and where subsequently on my return to New York I formally entered the music industry in collaboration with him. Ras Daniel had gone to negotiate with him up at his country farm in Portland, the possible design of his second solo album jacket cover “Protest”.
He was enigmatic from that time and remains such when I glimpsed him as I worked with Chris Blackwell at Island Records. That incorporated my working with various Marley related projects in the late 90’s and then directly through my work with the Rastafari Community IP Rights in 2009, where he was the Communities main philanthropic sponsor and further asI came to be directly involved with managing his catalog of musical works.
You take to task Chris Blackwell, most recently the contents of his book, do you think he did good in his development of Jamaica’s music? How else could he have operated in your eyes?
My views of Chris Blackwell is defined by my deep experience and understanding of the structural and inequitable architecture of Jamaican music, both for creatives and business development that mirrors our society. My critique of him is not personal but rooted in his opportunistic business and marketing advantages, that his historical wealth and political connections have given him power to change the organic achievements of the majoritively African-Jamaican music industry that again mirrors the struggles of the society.
Whilst the music industry globally comes from what I consider a ‘dark place’, I feel and have observed elsewhere that incremental changes have occurred that seek to balance the disadvantages through copyright reversions, contract renegotiation terms etc., that he is in a position to employ, but has not.
I think that he could make more active use not just of his wealth created, but of his international music & brand connections to build alliances that would more broadly benefit Jamaica’s music industry, but has chosen not to. This choice I feel is rooted in his socio-economic ties to the status quo in Jamaica and so I cannot but be aggrieved that the surface successes that he has achieved should naturally engender more.
Fueling this view, is the specifics of his business relationship with my Uncle and Bunny Wailer that he directly uses as descriptors in his book that forced me to specifically call him out. I expect that my own memoirs will offer more details and potential precedents for wider analyses.
Who was the best artist you signed/helped to sign?
I have been blessed to work with so many good artists that in my estimation achieved great heights that could have been greater still. Super Cat, Diana King, Jimmy Cliff, Stephen & Damian Marley are a few.
What advice would you give to young artists just coming in the business?
I think just learn the business and how to overcome the known weaknesses of the Jamaican music industry once you emerge into the light of success. I am close to and like what Blvk Hero, Wayne J and their producer Greatest Dennis is doing in terms of studying the industry. Be as careful as you can in relation to your social life as I am at the stage of seeing so much work and legacies being lost because of unstructured family life. The inability to transfer wealth and gains to your future generations.
Do you think streaming is good for the industry?
I think streaming is what is technologically relevant for the industry and so its value must be mastered and made good for use just as any other format like vinyl, tape, cd etc.
Your top 5 albums?
Live Loving – Sugar Minott
Dancehall Reggaespanol – El General & Various Artists
Don Dada – Super Cat
Catch A Fire – The Wailers
Blackheart Man – Bunny Wailer
I see you say you are assisting in organizing Bunny Wailer’s catalogue, what are the plans for his music and how do you plan to help?
Bunny’s solo catalog has certainly been organized for decades, what was not occurring was his comfort zone to effect an appropriate deal for its distribution. His clear choice was to release them himself or through short term licensing deals that have long ended, wherein his contestation with Island/UniversalRecords and The Wailers catalog absorbed a major part of his energy. We turned the corner on this by developing a new strategy surrounding the Intellectual Property of both Bunny Wailer & The Wailers and it is this strategy that is currently being sorted through in tandem with the ongoing works of companies of his Estate including renegotiations of the 1999 Tuff Gong Settlement Agreement. He left clear instructions as to how these actions should be performed.
Who owns Reggae Music?
The Jamaican creative class of artists, producers & business people at home and in the diaspora and the culture of the people therein. I am actually working on the development of Dancehall as a comprehensive title brand for Jamaican music, similar to how Reggae has been affixed that will further deepen and address notions of ownership.
