Linval Thompson

From the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, the name Linval Thompson and the Thompson Sounds moniker had serious currency in the world of Jamaican reggae. In addition to his reputation as a vocalist on over a dozen albums, Thompson was the producer of over 40 albums and hundreds of singles by artists including Dennis Brown, Freddie McGregor, Barrington Levy, Eek-A-Mouse, Gregory Isaacs, The Wailing Souls, Triston Palma, Cornell Campbell, Johnny Osbourne, The Viceroys, and Sugar Minott. An examination of his work makes the case that Thompson's contribution to reggae was essential during the music's golden era. Linval Thompson and Sugar Minott can be credited as the first reggae singers to exercise significant control as producers of their own work. Previously, the perilous route to becoming a reggae producer in Jamaica was only traversed by shrewd businessmen, sound system operators, and a handful of soundsystem deejays. Journalist Steve Milne of Full Watts described Linval Thompson as "an artist lauded by knowledgeable reggae-philes and practically unknown by the rest .