By the early 1970s Dennis Brown had recorded for virtually every well-known producer in Jamaica — Lloyd Daley, Phil Pratt, Randy’s, Niney, Joe Gibbs — and his run of hits had established him as the island’s top recording artist and the most in-demand entertainer, the Jamaica Gleaner records. The title that followed was “The Crown Prince of Reggae.”
When the king crowned the prince
Bob Marley cited Brown as his favourite singer, dubbing him “The Crown Prince of Reggae,” Wikipedia notes — a symbolic placing of Marley as king and Brown as heir apparent. Alan “Skill” Cole, Marley’s former manager, recalled walking with Marley along Beeston Street and Chancery Lane in downtown Kingston, circa 1972, when Marley drew his attention to a teenage Brown: “Him sey to mi, ‘Alan, a da likkle boy dey name Dennis Brown. Him can sing!’” the Jamaica Observer reports. Marley had deep respect for two singers above all, Cole said: Brown and John Holt.
A guarantee of quality
The Jamaica Observer writes that upon hearing the child prodigy, Marley dubbed Brown the greatest singer in the world “before the world even knew who he was.” The New York Times, in its 1999 obituary, called him “Emmanuel, the Crown Prince of Reggae.” The name was not mere hype. Through the 1970s and 1980s, Brown’s voice — honeycoated, unhurried, always a little wounded — became a guarantee of recording quality. Fans could not get enough: all he had to do was sing, the Guardian noted, and records sold in tens of thousands, if not millions.
Why it matters
When Bob Marley died in May 1981, fans were “practically gagging” to hand Brown the crown, the Guardian wrote. He never fully claimed it — but the Crown Prince title endures as the most honest description of his place in reggae: second to no one in the hearts of those who heard him.
Listen and dig deeper
- Play The Crown Prince in the Listen library, and browse Dennis Brown.
- Previously: Child prodigy and “No Man Is an Island” (1969). Next: Wolves and Leopards (1977).
Sources: The Guardian — “Dennis Brown” (Dotun Adebayo, Jul 2, 1999); The New York Times — “Dennis Brown, 42, Reggae Singer With an Enduringly Sweet Style” (Jul 4, 1999); Jamaica Observer — “When the king ‘crowned’ the prince” (Feb 4, 2015); Jamaica Gleaner — “Dennis Brown a hero among heroes among heroes” (Jul 14, 2019); Wikipedia — Dennis Brown.
Editor’s note: This entry is part of the JamaicansMusic online museum — a career timeline assembled from the archive. It is dated to the era it documents; every claim is drawn from the linked sources.