Reggae pioneer Jimmy Cliff: ‘In England we had to fight to get any kind of recognition’
One of the great pioneers of reggae, Jimmy Cliff was born in Jamaica in 1944 as James Chambers, and started writing songs while in primary school. He moved to Kingston as a teenager to pursue music and had his first hit at 14 with Hurricane Hattie. After stints in New York and London he returned to Jamaica and played the lead role in the 1972 film The Harder They Come, whose soundtrack (featuring four of Cliff’s songs) helped popularise reggae around the world. The film has just been rereleased for its 50th anniversary, and Cliff’s latest album, Refugees, his first in a decade, is out now on UMe.
No, I wanted to make it because I wanted to make new music. And along the way these songs were inspired. A lot of the way I
