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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Half Pint

Artist. Reggae

Active
1982-present
Sunrise
1961 or 1962, Kingston, Jamaica

Half Pint, born Lindon Andrew Roberts in 1961 or 1962, wrote most of what he sang, and had what Stephen Cooper calls an "inimitable, soulful sound."

His first single, "Sally," came in 1983 through the producers Errol Marshall and Errol Lewis. "Winsome" followed and went to number one in Jamaica, and in 1986 the Rolling Stones recorded it as "Too Rude" on Dirty Work, with Keith Richards singing lead and Jimmy Cliff on backing vocals. Half Pint learned about the cover secondhand, from musicians who had been in the studio.

He toured with Sly and Robbie's Taxi Gang in the mid-1980s and cut "Night Life Lady" and "World Inflation" for them. "Greetings," his best-known record, was made for George Phang's Powerhouse label and, by his own account, voiced in a single take. Sources date it variously to 1984, 1985, and 1986. The credits on the album of the same name put Sly Dunbar on drums, Robbie Shakespeare on bass and guitars, Robbie Lyn on keyboards, and Skully on percussion, recorded at TMC and Dynamic with Michael Riley engineering and Phang producing and arranging, which is worth stating because the record is usually described as an early all-digital production and it was not. The riddim is a rebuilt version of the rocksteady "Heavenless," and it carried Super Cat's "Under Pressure" as well. "Cost of Living" and "Level the Vibes" followed, and he was voted Jamaica's top male vocalist at the end of 1986. His early hits for King Jammy included "Money Man Skank" and "One in a Million," and he also recorded for Jack Scorpio and Bobby Digital.

The nickname came from his height. The Rough Guide calls him "always limited in the melodies he used," but says his best records have energy, style and ebullience, and that he, like the other dancehall singers, used the deejays' "improvisatory techniques at the mic." He insisted on the difference, though: "sometimes people come at me like I am a DJ but I am not." He kept the chorus on "a more mid-range note where the fans can get the soul and feel of it," let the verses flow closer to speech, and stayed away from the digital "Sleng Teng" sound because, to him, it lacked soul.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. The Rough Guide gives his name as Lyndon Roberts and his birth as 1962, in Kingston. Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 271. Wikipedia gives Lindon Andrew Roberts, born November 11, 1961. "Half Pint," Wikipedia, accessed October 1, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half_Pint. Dirty Work credits "Too Rude" to "Lindon Roberts." Mel Cooke, "Story of the Song: Rolling Stones Pick Up Half Pint's 'Winsome,'" Jamaica Gleaner, September 20, 2009, https://old.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20090920/ent/ent2.html. Stephen Cooper, "The Fullness of Half Pint," CounterPunch, June 14, 2019, https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/06/14/the-fullness-of-half-pint/print/.
  2. The Rough Guide names the partnership as Myrie Lewis and Errol Marshall, who first took him into the studio after he had sung on sound systems such as Mellow Vibes Hi-Fi and Black Scorpio. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 271. Wikipedia gives the names as "Errol (John) Marshall" and "Errol (Myrie) Lewis." "Half Pint."
  3. The Gleaner calls "Winsome" "Half Pint's first number-one song in Jamaica." Cooke, "Story of the Song." The Rough Guide says it came out on Lewis and Marshall's Sun Set label and calls it "his best record." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 279, 281.
  4. The Gleaner notes that "Too Rude" is "one of the few Rolling Stones recordings on which Richards sings the lead vocals." Cooke, "Story of the Song." The Rough Guide calls the cover "rather inept." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 279.
  5. Half Pint told the Gleaner he heard of the cover through the percussionist Sydney Wolfe, who was in a Dutch studio with Jimmy Cliff when Richards chose the song. Cooke, "Story of the Song."
  6. Wikipedia, citing an Afropop interview, says "Greetings" was released on Powerhouse in 1986 and "recorded in a single take." "Half Pint." The Rough Guide lists it among the 45s cut on the Sly & Robbie rhythms built for George Phang in 1984. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 280. In the Afropop interview itself he says the riddim began as a combination track in Jamaica in 1984 and that he cut the vocal in one take at a Stockwell studio in London in 1985. "Still Leveling the Vibes."
  7. The 1986 Power House LP credits Sly Dunbar (drums), Robbie Shakespeare (bass and guitars), Robbie Lyn (keyboards), Noel "Scully" Simms (percussion), and Mikey Riley and Andy Gierus (engineers), with George Phang as producer and arranger. Half Pint, Greetings, Power House, Discogs, accessed October 1, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/648088.
  8. The Rough Guide calls the Greetings title track "anthemic" and says it "has only been equalled by 'Winsome' ... and 'Money Man Skank.'" Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 281.
  9. The Rough Guide says Jammy "provided him with his first hits ('Pouchie Lou', 'One In A Million' and 'Money Man Skank')" in 1983, that Money Man Skank became his debut album, and that One In A Million followed in the UK the next year. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 271. It also names early-1990s singles for Digital B, Studio One, and Harmony House. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 271.
  10. The Rough Guide says he and the other dancehall singers "employed similar improvisatory techniques at the mic" as the deejays, though he "was always limited in the melodies he used." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 248, 271.
  11. "Still Leveling the Vibes: An Interview with Half Pint," Afropop Worldwide, March 5, 2013, https://old.afropop.org/articles/still-leveling-the-vibes-an-interview-with-half-pint.

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