Jimmy Cliff, the iconic reggae star who helped transform the island’s rhythmic music into a global cultural phenomenon, has died, his wife said Monday. He was 81.
The family announced the death in a post on Cliff’s official Instagram account, saying he “has crossed over due to a seizure followed by pneumonia.”
“I am thankful for his family, friends, fellow artists and coworkers who have shared his journey with him,” said the statement, signed by his wife Latifa Chambers and their children Lilty and Aken.
“To all his fans around the world, please know that your support was his strength throughout his whole career.”
Over four decades Cliff wrote and sang songs that fused reggae with his sensibilities for folk, soul, rhythm and blues, ska and rock music, and addressed issues like politics, poverty, injustice and war protest.
The singer of hits like “You Can Get It If You Really Want,” “Many Rivers to Cross,” and “The Harder They Come,” Cliff is widely seen as reggae’s most influential figure after the late Bob Marley, with whom he collaborated early in Marley’s career.
Cliff built a major following, beginning with the wildly successful 1972 film “The Harder They Come,” which starred the charismatic Cliff as a rural young man navigating gangs and street life as he sought to break into Jamaica’s music business.
It drew in part from his own experiences growing up in poverty, and introduced him and reggae music to a global audience.
“The essence of my music is struggle,” Cliff said in 1986, according to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which inducted him in 2010. “What gives it the icing is the hope of love.”
Cliff said at his induction ceremony that he actually “grew up listening to rock and roll music, outside of our Indigenous music in Jamaica,” and that he drew inspiration from the greats, including Sam Cooke, Ray Charles and Jimi Hendrix.
