Jimmy Cliff: I Am The Living

November 27, 2025

“My role was and is inspiring people,” he told me in 1999, backstage in Oracabessa, Jamaica during the filming of a television special honoring his longtime bredren Bob Marley. “To inspire people to want to live.”

Musician Jimmy Cliff attends the 25th Annual Rock And Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at the Waldorf=Astoria on March 15, 2010 in New York City.

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“To tell you the truth, we were not prepared for what happened,” his wife Latifa said yesterday, just hours after announcing her husband’s sudden passing following a seizure. “The day before, he was swimming and eating, very happy because we were ready to travel,” she said. “Everything was just perfect.”

Before jetting off to France for a family vacation, Cliff and his wife and their son Aken and daughter Lilty were planning to visit Jamaica for a few days to see how his beloved hometown of Somerton—a rural community near Montego Bay where he was born James Chambers on July 30, 1944—had fared during Hurricane Melissa.

“He wasn’t sick you know,” says trumpeter and vocalist Dwight Richards, who served as Cliff’s musical director for more than 20 years and ran his Sunpower Productions label and studio in Kingston. “This just happened overnight,” he says. “I spoke to him last week and we were planning to do some recordings. We were planning all kind of stuff. It’s just weird.”

Reggae singer Jimmy Cliff at Island Records’ Studio One in London.

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“As a foundation man of the reggae I’ve always been one to go with the evolution of the music,” he told me for a 2004 VIBE article. “We evolved from ska to rock steady to reggae to rub a dub to raggamuffin and dancehall.” Jimmy Cliff seemed so unshakable, so constant, he became something like the Rock of Ages. “I am the living and the loving,” he sang in 1980, one year before Robert Nesta Marley flew away home to Zion. “I’m the shelter in a hail of thunder.”

“That man’s legacy is immense,” says Bounty Killer, who collaborated with Cliff on a remix of his song “Humanitarian” during the pandemic. “He transcends across like six generations and every continent. Jimmy was like a Cliff of inspiration to all of us Jamaicans. We definitely lost one of our greatest icons. And he was such a beautiful soul, the most humble human.”

Jimmy Cliff performs during the Mile High Music Festival at Dick’s Sporting Good’s Park on August 15, 2010 in Commerce City, Colorado.

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When the day’s work was done, Jimmy would regale the Circle House gang with stories from his 60-year career. “Jimmy man, you need to write the book!” Roger would tell him. Now he wishes he had recorded some of those late-night reasoning sessions. “Bwoy the man pack up and gone Iya,” Lewis says mournfully.

Jimmy Cliff pendant l’enregistrement de la musique du film Club Paradise, le 1 aout 1986 à Londres.

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That snakeskin suit drove the audio man crazy—every time Jimmy moved, the material would creak. “We had to stop the interview at some points because the mic was picking up the sound of his suit,” Reshma says with a smile. “But he was very professional about that.”

Musician Jimmy Cliff attends the 6th Annual Focus For Change: Benefit Dinner And Concert at Roseland Ballroom on December 2, 2010 in New York City.

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“A Caucasian bearded gentleman said to me, ‘I’m making a movie, do you think you could write the music for it?’” Cliff recalled. “What do you mean if I ‘think’?” the Starbwoy replied. “I can do anything!” Two months later he received a script with a note saying Henzel wanted Cliff to play the lead role of Ivan, a country boy who becomes “Rhygin”—a real-life gangster folk hero. Cliff seasoned the screenplay with his own experiences as an underpaid recording artist struggling to survive.

Jimmy Cliff, portrait in Rotterdam, Netherlands, 29th May 1986.

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The one-two knockout punch of The Harder They Come was the film’s soundtrack, packed with classics like the Melodians’ “Rivers of Babylon,” the Slickers’ “Johnny Too Bad,” Scotty’s early DJ cut “Draw Your Brakes” and the Maytals’ “Pressure Drop,” which showcased Toots Hibbert’s soulful roar.

Photo of Jimmy Cliff

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One sheet movie poster advertises the Reggae crime film ‘The Harder They Come’ (New World Pictures), starring Jimmy Cliff, 1972.

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Photo of Jimmy Cliff

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For the first song that he recorded, Jimmy was offered a shilling. “A shilling was maybe like a quarter,” he says. “I could buy a drink for that or maybe take a bus to school, cause I was still going to school then.”

Jimmy was 17 when he met Leslie Kong, the youngest of three Chinese Jamaican brothers who ran an ice cream shop, restaurant, and record shop on Orange Street in downtown Kingston. His impromptu performance inspired Kong to start the Beverley’s record label, whose first release was a Jimmy Cliff 45 featuring “Hurricane Hattie,” a song about a category 5 storm that narrowly missed Jamaica, with “My Dearest Beverly” on the flip side.

Reggae musician Jimmy Cliff performing in Kingston, Jamaica, 1977. During making of Harcourt Film ‘Roots Rock Reggae’.

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Jimmy Cliff performs live on stage at Paradiso in Amsterdam, Netherlands on November 11 2002

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Jimmy Cliff performs during The Climate Rally Earth Day 2010 at the National Mall on April 25, 2010 in Washington, DC.

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1997: Jamaican reggae singer Jimmy Cliff (James Chambers)

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Jimmy Cliff performs at the Caribana festival in Geneva, Switzerland on June 10th, 2005.

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Since the news of Jimmy’s passing, Dwight’s phone has been blowing up. “Everybody callin’ me from all over the world,” he says. “And in Jamaica, all the radio stations spend lots of hours and hours. The prime minister, the opposition leader, everyone talks about Jimmy. Jimmy has songs that each of us can live,” Dwight adds. “Miss? We will miss him, but we will keep his music, his legacy, alive and well.” Dwight says “Moving On” was one of Jimmy’s favorite songs on the last album. The lyrics hit different today.

Jimmy Cliff performs live for fans at ASB Arena on March 27, 2015 in Tauranga, New Zealand.

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