Jamaican Reggae icon Cocoa Tea dies of cardiac arreast at 65
By Rajab ZawadiLegendary Jamaican reggae icon Cocoa Tea is dead. He was 65 years old.
His wife, Malvia Scott, confirmed that her husband died on Tuesday, March 11 in Florida, USA, after suffering a cardiac arrest.
Before his death, Cocoa Tea, who was diagnosed with lymphoma in 2019, had been battling pneumonia.
“He was first diagnosed with lymphoma in 2019, but for the last six months he had also been struggling with pneumonia,” Malvia told the Jamaican news outlet The Gleaner.
Born Calvin Scott in 1959, he rose to prominence in the ’90s. Known for songs like ”
Born in Cocoa Tea in 1959, Calvin Scott rose to prominence in the ’90s, releasing dozens of hits during his lifetime, including Barrack Obama, Lost My Sonia, and Rocking Dolly. His signature sound blended breezy, slow-grooving vocals with socially conscious lyricism.
He released his first song, Searching In The Hill, in 1985, when he was just a teenager.
According to The Independent, Cocoa Tea first rose to prominence on the Jamaican music scene in the mid-80s before his fame went global in the 90s.
Perhaps his most famous hit is the 1990 song Riker’s Island, which would get a remix titled Me No Like Rikers Island with Nardo Ranks.
He gained notoriety in 2008 when he released the hit song Barack Obama in support of the former U.S. presidential candidacy, a song he said he regretted doing in later years.
Throughout his discography, Cocoa Tea leaned heavily on themes of love and peace, important tenets of Rastafarianism, a religion he joined in 1985. A worldly citizen-activist, his music consistently advocated for the upliftment of the poor, relief for the downtrodden, love, and clean, conscious living, rooted in the teachings of Marcus Garvey and Haile Selassie I, the Emperor of Ethiopia.
In 2014 he released his last album Sunset in Negril. Cocoa Tea is survived by his wife Malvia and eight children.