34
He began writing songs while still in elementary school in St. James, listening to a neighbor’ s sound system. This attentive listening, this absorption of rhythms and melodies, shaped his musical ear from an early age.“ At school, I was already doing magic tricks. I don’ t know how I learned them. I could also read palms. No one taught me how to do that either,” he recalled. This mystical dimension, this connection with the invisible, would permeate his entire musical career.
Kingston at 14: The Beginning of a Legend
Flashmag! Issue 167 December 2025
When Chambers was 14, his father took him to Kingston— Jamaica’ s vibrant, chaotic, creative capital. The young boy adopted the stage name“ Jimmy Cliff,” a name chosen to express the heights he intended to reach. He recorded several singles before dominating the Jamaican charts with his own composition,“ Hurricane Hattie,” at just 14 years old, one of his first efforts for Leslie Kong’ s Beverly Records. Kong, a visionary producer, immediately recognized the raw talent of the young Cliff and became his mentor. Early local hits piled up:“ King of Kings,”“ Dearest Beverley,”“ Pride and Passion.” Cliff combined pop and ska influences into a sound that was both deeply Jamaican and universally accessible.
London Island Records and International Breakthrough
In 1965, at the request of Chris Blackwell of Island Records, Cliff moved to London and broadened his musical approach to incorporate soul and rhythm and blues, evolving towards reggae. Blackwell, who would later propel Bob Marley to global fame, saw in Cliff the potential to take reggae beyond Jamaica’ s borders.
Cliff visits SiriusXM Studio on Nov. 29, 2011, in New York City. Cindy Ord, Getty Images
At first, Island tried( unsuccessfully) to sell Cliff to rock audiences. But Cliff knew who he was. He wasn’ t trying to imitate white people— he wanted them to come to him, to his music, to his culture.
34