A week after celebrating his 65th birthday, Stanley Beckford died on Friday 30 March, according to the Jamaican Star newspaper. He had been suffering from throat cancer for several weeks, and his family had even appealed to fans' generosity to help him.
The pope of mento leaves behind a long career that began in the 60s. Numerous hits (Soldering, Kisiloo, Brown Gyal and Broom Weed) made his mento-tinged reggae hugely popular. Recently, he released two albums of reggae standards covers ("Stanley Beckford plays mento" in 2002, "Reggamento" in 2004). He leaves a wife and seven children.