The songs of Dennis Emmanuel Brown filled National Heroes’ Park in Kingston on July 1, celebrated globally as International Reggae Day. It also marked the 25th year since the Crown Prince of Reggae’s death.

Organised by the Dennis Brown Trust, the annual event sees the music industry showing respect at the hallowed location which is his final resting place.

Trevor “Leggo Beast” Douglas, one of Brown’s closest friends, was among the gathering that laid a wreath at his grave.

Douglas and Junior Lincoln of the Dennis Brown Trust, are organisers of the three-hour show. There were performances from a number of artistes who did renditions of his songs. They were backed by the Binghistra Movement, led by guitarist Earl “Chinna” Smith, who played on some of Brown’s classic songs including Westbound Train and Cassandra.

Delroy “Time” Williams, of the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari, started the vocal segment with Without Your Love, followed by Selassie, who did Africa, one of the songs that announced Brown’s embrace of Rastafari in the early 1970s.

Performances also came from Arlene Napthali with Stop The Fighting, Natty Pablo (
Things in Life), Mankind (Should I), Sangie Davis (Make Ends Meet), Narado (Money in My Pocket), Ian “Bassy” Knight, (Baby Don’t do It), Paul “Wrong Move” Crosdale (Old Man River), Marlon Brown (What About The Half), Matrujah (Since I’ve Been Loving You), and Itral Ites (If You Want Me).

The Dennis Brown Trust was founded in 2001 to oversee his legacy which includes a vast catalogue.

Brown died in Kingston in 1999 at age 42. His career started in the late 1960s, with Derrick Harriott producing Lips of Wine, his first hit song.