Trojan Jamaica Releases Behind-the-Scenes of Toots Hibbert's 'Got to Be Tough' Album

In honor of what would have been the legendary and dearly missed Toots Hibbert's 78th birthday, Trojan Jamaica has released an exclusive, behind the scenes short of the making of his latest GRAMMY nominated album 'Got To Be Tough.'

Released on August 28 via Trojan Jamaica, Got To Be Tough was his first studio release and come-back album after almost a decade following an accident in 2013 which prompted him to shy away from public life and releasing music altogether. However, thanks to the encouragement and belief from co-producer Zak Starkey and his label co-founder and partner Sharna Sshh Liguz, Toots made a welcomed return this summer with one of the greatest reggae albums of our time, which has since been nominated for Best Reggae Album for the upcoming 63rd annual GRAMMY Awards.

Tragically, Toots fell sick just days after the release of 'Got To Be Tough,' and passed away in Jamaica on September 11 due to COVID-19-related complications. In this touching video, Toots' daughter Leba Hibbert thanks those who voted for her father and tells viewers what it would have meant to her late father having received this prestigious nomination.

Got To Be Tough' - The Making of his GRAMMY-Nominated Album, features exclusive footage and interviews with Toots himself, as well as 'Got To Be Tough' co-producers Zak Starkey, Youth and Nigel Burell, plus Trojan Jamaica co-founder Sharna Sshh Liguz, legendary musicians Sly Dunbar and Cyril Neville and more, and was shot at Trojan Jamaica Sound Studios in Ocho Rios, Jamaica and Trojan Jamaica Sound Studios in the UK, during the making of 'Got To Be Tough.' Watch HERE.

During a time of global social and political unrest, Toots' welcomed return and voice couldn't have been more needed or necessary than ever. Harking back to the start of Ska, during the civil rights movement era in America and Jamaican independence in the 1960s, he sung iconic truths such as 'Monkey Man' and '54-46 Was My Number,' a wry but not bitter response to his unjust incarceration for ganja. He hipped our heads in the 1970s with the dynamic pan-Africanism of 'Funky Kingston' and the early warning message of 'Pressure Drop'; re-defining soul with the 'Toots In Memphis' LP in the 80s.

Since his wrongful 1966 imprisonment - which spawned one of his biggest global hits '54-46 Was My Number' -- Toots gained insight into the corrupt systems that try to dominate our bravest endeavors, and it is in his new resistance music, that his anger at and sensitivity to injustice in 2020 is clearer than ever.

The multiple GRAMMY Award nominated and winning musician, vocalist, songwriter, producer and icon made the wait worthwhile, crafting a stubborn groove, designed to inspire tenacity, while splendidly balancing joy and anger, pain and healing. Produced by Toots himself, who also played many of the instruments on this album, alongside Zak Starkey on guitar, drums from one half of Sly and Robbie, Sly Dunbar, percussion from Cyril Neville, and a mighty horn section arranged by Toots himself.

The energizing provocation of Got To Be Tough renewed the near six-decade career of the man who launched a new sound and genre with his 1968 release, 'Do The Reggay.' It's a reminder that through Toots' creative veins ran all the roots and shoots of the Black Diaspora. Blues, soul, r'n'b, funk, jazz, reggae, African griots - Toots honored, embodied and owned them all. Throwing down an authoritative guide: how to survive and thrive among our earth challenges. He is missed dearly but his message and music shall live on.

Got To Be Tough is available worldwide now

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