Legendary Jamaican vocalist King Stitt is dead.
Stitt, whose real name is Winston Sparkes, died at his home in Nannyville, Kingston yesterday afternoon after an unknown illness.
King Stitt, who rose to fame in the 1950s, is being regarded as one of the pioneers of the deejay idiom as his voice was a regular feature on Sir Coxsone Dodd’s Downbeat Sound System.
During that time, the now popular reggae/dancehall music was in it’s infancy. It was not until 1969 that the king first recorded for producer Clancy Eccles with tracks like Fire Corner and Lee Van Cleef.
Funeral arrangements for King Stitt will be announced at a later date.
