We’ve been following New Kingston—the reggae power trio consisting of brothers Tahir, Steve and Courtney Panton, Jr.—since their days as a teenage band-for-hire on the live music circuit in NYC. That was nearly a decade ago, and since then the sons of veteran reggae musician and producer Courtney Panton, Sr., have gone international, touring the world several times over with Collie Buddz, and establishing themselves as a self-contained unit with their own original material. Tomorrow sees the release of their third LP, entitled Kingston City, via Easy Star Records. Ahead of the album drop, they’ve given us “Certain Girls,” a Kingston City featuring vocals from the late, great Sugar Minott, to share.
“The collaboration stemmed from the close friendship that our father Courtney Panton Sr. and Sugar Minott had back in the day,” the brothers tell us, via e-mail. “Sugar used to live in [Courtney Sr.’s] Kingston Studios before there ever was a New Kingston. So while we were searching for a dancehall track idea for Kingston City, Courtney Sr. dug up some old tapes of endless vocals Sugar had recorded for him. For us it was a pleasure and honor to work with one of the originators of dancehall, and to bring that forward to our generation is a blessing.”
Stream “Certain Girls” below, and pre-order Kingston City, which also features the lead single “Can’t Stop a Man” and collaborations with the Wailing Souls and Sister Carol, here.