R.I.P. Jimmy Cliff

With ‘many rivers to cross’, a reggae icon has passed–

Jimmy Cliff, the Jamaican Grammy Award-winning reggae singer/songwriter, has died of pneumonia at the age of 81, his wife Latifa Chambers, announced in a post on his official Instagram page early this morning.

Known for hits including “You Can Get It If You Really Want” and “The Harder They Come,” and his seminal role in the 1972 film “The Harder They Come,” Cliff helped the reggae genre become known exponentially and eventually into a worldwide sensation.

The cause was a seizure followed by pneumonia; she wrote. “Jimmy, my darling, may you rest in peace.” “To all his fans around the world, please know that your support was his strength throughout his whole career.” Cliff won two Grammys: Best Reggae Recording in 1986 for “Cliff Hanger” and Best Reggae album in 2013 for “Rebirth.”

Cliff was born James Chambers on July 30, 1944, in St. James Jamaica and was writing his own songs early, inspired by the beats and melodies coming from a neighbor’s sound system. After some trial and error, he had a first hit with “Hurricane Hattie” at age 17 and soon signed to Island Records and moved to the UK.

UK radio hits like “Waterfall”, “Vietnam” (which earned protest song praise from Bob Dylan), and his cover of Cat Stevens’ “Wild World” would follow. In 1972, he starred in the film “The Harder They Come” about a struggling reggae artist trying to make it, and having to turn to a life of crime, revealing a sobering scenario that parts of Jamaica were more than the lush tourist visuals most of the public was only aware of.

Shortly after the film’s release, Cliff played his first major U.S. concerts, although reggae was still on a slow rise to becoming as popular as it is today. He appeared on the first season of Saturday Night Live, had a song covered by Bruce Springsteen (“Trapped”), sang background on The Rolling Stones’ Dirty Work album, as well as was one of dozens on Little Steven’s mid-80’s anti-apartheid hit, “Sun City”.

In more recent years, he was deservingly inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010 by Wyclef Jean, became an unofficial ambassador to the genre, collaborated with the likes of Tim Armstrong from Rancid on an EP, and released his most recent album, Refugees, in August 2022.

Jimmy Cliff also held the rare distinction of being the only living reggae musician to hold the Order of Merit, Jamaica’s highest honor for achievements in the arts and sciences.