Cocoa Tea

Known for his socially conscious reggae, Calvin Scott—a.k.a. Cocoa Tea—often addresses hot topics with cool-breeze vocals. Born in 1959 in Jamaica's Clarendon Parish, he sang at church, recorded his first tracks at age 14, and worked as a racehorse jockey and fisherman before moving to Kingston in 1983. Taking his name from Jamaica's version of hot chocolate, Cocoa Tea had his first hit with the Henry "Junjo" Lawes-produced "Rocking Dolly". That sinuously sexy dancehall groove kicked off his 1984 debut album, Weh Dem a Go Do...Can't Stop Cocoa Tea. He adopted Rastafarianism in 1985, took on King Jammy as his primary producer, and soon added cultural consciousness to his musical quiver, addressing pirate radio ("Pirates Anthem"), the prison industrial complex ("Rikers Island"), and the Gulf War ("Oil Ting" and "No Blood for Oil"—both banned in Jamaica and the UK). Tea maintained his output through the '90s, then returned in 2008 with an eponymous tribute to U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama.