World of Jamaican Music

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An illustrated map of the creators of Jamaican music and how they are connected.

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Cocoa Tea

Artist. Dancehall

Active
1974-2025
Sunrise
September 3, 1959, Rocky Point, Clarendon
Sunset
March 11, 2025, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Also known as
Sweet Sweet Cocoa Tea

Colvin George Scott, known as Cocoa Tea, was, for the Rough Guide, "the very gifted Cocoa Tea," with a "honeyed voice." "I am an artist that is always hot, even under my cool exterior," he said, "but I am sweet like cocoa tea."

He was born in Rocky Point, a fishing village in Clarendon, and worked as a fisherman and a racehorse jockey before music supported him. The nickname came from his fondness for hot chocolate, called cocoa tea in rural Jamaica. He recorded first at fourteen without result, and broke through a decade later with "Rocking Dolly" (1984) for Henry "Junjo" Lawes. He wrote it to celebrate the swaying style of bicycle riders, and he credited Lawes with teaching him to build a catalog of hits before touring. He preferred to describe his career as "a steady, slow leak": "things that buss eventually get thrown away."

He turned to Rastafari in 1985 and the material changed accordingly, though he never abandoned love songs. Working with King Jammy and later Gussie Clarke, he recorded "Young Lover," "Children of the Ghetto," and "18 and Over," and joined Shabba Ranks and Home T for "Pirate's Anthem," which took the side of the unlicensed radio stations then fighting for airtime in Britain.

"Rikers Island" (1990) warned young Jamaicans about what awaited them in the American drug trade and became the song he was most identified with. He ran his own Roaring Lion label, was a fixture at Reggae Sunsplash, and released "Barack Obama" in 2008, an endorsement record the Gleaner calls one of his biggest global hits.

He departed in Fort Lauderdale on March 11, 2025, at sixty-five; the cause was cardiac arrest.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 270, calls him "the very gifted Cocoa Tea" with a "honeyed voice" and gives his name and birth as "Calvin Scott, 1960, Clarendon"; the Gleaner gives Colvin Scott, born September 3, 1959. Yasmine Peru, "Veteran Reggae Singer Cocoa Tea Has Died," Jamaica Gleaner, March 11, 2025, http://past.jamaica-gleaner.com/article/entertainment/20250311/veteran-reggae-singer-cocoa-tea-has-died.
  2. Sherman Escoffery, "Cocoa Tea," LargeUp, accessed November 5, 2026, https://www.largeup.com/?p=31838.
  3. The Gleaner says he trained as a jockey at Caymanas Park, then did mason work and fished at Rocky Point, spending about five years as a jockey and fisherman before meeting Junjo Lawes. J. T. Davy, "Reggae Icon Cocoa Tea Rocked the Racetrack, Stage," Jamaica Gleaner, March 16, 2025, http://past.jamaica-gleaner.com/article/entertainment/20250316/reggae-icon-cocoa-tea-rocked-racetrack-stage.
  4. The Gleaner says he recorded his first solo song, "Searching In The Hills," at fourteen with Willie Francis; Wikipedia dates it to 1974. Davy, "Reggae Icon Cocoa Tea." "Cocoa Tea," Wikipedia, accessed October 1, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocoa_Tea. The Rough Guide credits Junjo with launching him, names "Rocking Dolly" and "Lost My Sonia" as his first hits, and dates the Rocking Dolly album to 1985. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 270.
  5. Escoffery, "Cocoa Tea."
  6. The Gleaner dates his embrace of Rastafari to 1985, while quoting him as saying he "discovered Rastafari from about 1980." Davy, "Reggae Icon Cocoa Tea."
  7. The Rough Guide notes Gussie Clarke's pairing of Shabba Ranks with "the sweet tones of the male trio Home T and Cocoa Tea," and lists "Come Again" and "Tune In" among his hits for Jammy. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 298, 300, 307. The Gleaner dates the trio's album Holding On, with "Pirates Anthem," to 1989. Davy, "Reggae Icon Cocoa Tea." Wikipedia names "Young Lover" and "Children of the Ghetto" as Jammy hits. "Cocoa Tea," Wikipedia.
  8. Wikipedia dates "Rikers Island" to 1990, on the Mr Doo imprint, and says it reworked John Holt's "Up Park Camp" as a warning to young Jamaican immigrants. "Cocoa Tea," Wikipedia. The Gleaner calls it "one of his most famous songs." Peru, "Veteran Reggae Singer Cocoa Tea Has Died."
  9. The Gleaner says he had the Roaring Lion label by 1995 (Wikipedia gives 1997) and calls "Barack Obama," written in January 2008, "one of his biggest global hits." Davy, "Reggae Icon Cocoa Tea." "Cocoa Tea," Wikipedia. On Sunsplash, Wikipedia says he performed at "almost every" one. "Cocoa Tea," Wikipedia.
  10. The Gleaner reported on the day that he died at 4:46 a.m. at a hospital in Broward, Fort Lauderdale, after a cardiac arrest, having been diagnosed with lymphoma in 2019. Peru, "Veteran Reggae Singer Cocoa Tea Has Died." A later Gleaner article gives the date as Wednesday, March 12. Davy, "Reggae Icon Cocoa Tea."

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