Legendary Jamaican reggae band Toots and The Maytals Sunday, March 14 won its second Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album at the 63rd annual Grammy Awards at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, CA.
The award for “Got To Be Tough” beat out Buju Banton’s “Upside Down 2020,” Skip Marley’s “Higher Place,” Maxi Priest’s “It All Comes Back To Love,” and The Wailers’ “One World.”
It was Toots and The Maytals’ sixth Grammy nomination after first copping the illustrious award in 2005 for the album, “True Love.”
The band’s second Grammy is an apt tribute to its internationally-acclaimed reggae star and front-man, Fredrick “Toots” Hibbert, who died at the University Hospital of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica, on Sept. 11 last year, nearly two weeks after he tested positive for COVID-19. He was 77.
Hibbert’s death also came two weeks after Toots and The Maytals released “Got To Be Tough.”
“Very honored to have Got To Be Tough win the Grammy for Best Reggae Album,” tweeted Toots and The Maytals after winning the Grammy. “A very special way to remember the legacy of Toots Hibbert! We are very grateful to everyone who helped make this happen.”
Just before Hibbert was laid to rest in Jamaica’s National Heroes Park, Culture Minister Olivia Grange described the reggae legend as “a national treasure, whose humble demeanor and affable personality belied his towering global stature.”
Before his death, Hibbert was considered a pioneer of reggae, according to dancehallmag.com.
“When he died at the age of 77, his career had already spanned six decades, and he was credited for giving the genre its name after his song, ‘Do the Reggay,’ was released in 1968,” it said recently.
On Dec. 8, 2020, on what would have been Hibbert’s 78th birthday Trojan Jamaica, the label that released Toots and the Maytals’ “Got to Be Tough,” premiered a video in the musician’s honor, dancehallmag said.
It said the video contains clips of the making of “Got to Be Tough,” which included interviews with Hibbert.
Urbanislandz.com said the legendary front-man was “widely known for his soulful voice” and that “he and his band were considered pioneers of the reggae genre.”
