By Harley Brown
Courtesy of VP RecordsA2IM’s Libera Awards, which celebrates the year’s most successful and influential indie labels, artists, and other members of the music industry, has announced that VP Records co-founder Pat Chin will receive its coveted Lifetime Achievement Award. Last year’s went to Alligator Records founder and CEO Bruce Iglauer. The ceremony will take place on June 25 at New York City’s Highline Ballroom.
Chin and her late husband, Vincent “Randy” Chin, were heavily involved in the ascent of reggae music after moving their retail store in 1979 from Kingston, Jamaica to Jamaica, New York, where it grew into VP (for Vincent and Pat, naturally) Records. Chin has been instrumental in building the careers of artists including Shabba Ranks, Sean Paul, Bunji Garlin, and Beenie Man.
Following the death of her husband in 2003, “Miss Pat”‘s children have stepped up to leadership roles in VP Records, which recently celebrated its 35th anniversary with a mobile reggae exhibit, A Reggae Music Journey.