World of Jamaican Music

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

Remembering Derrick Harriott (1939-2026), rocksteady singer and producer. Read his story →

Justin Hinds

Artist. Ska, rocksteady

Active
1964-2005
Sunrise
May 7, 1942, Steertown, St. Ann, Jamaica
Sunset
March 16, 2005 (lung cancer)
Also known as
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes, The Dominoes

Justin Hinds sang with the Dominoes, a harmony duo of Dennis Sinclair and Junior Dixon, and was the most successful artist Duke Reid ever recorded.

He was born in the village of Steertown, St. Ann, and sang in bars and on the beach around Ocho Rios before going to Kingston. Coxsone Dodd turned him down. Reid did not ("That guy can really sing," Hinds recalled him saying), and their first session, in late 1963, produced "Carry Go Bring Come" in a single take, backed by a band under Tommy McCook that included Don Drummond. The title is Jamaican for gossip and the lyric is a warning against it. The record went to number one and stayed there for two months.

Between 1964 and 1966 he recorded some seventy singles for Treasure Isle, more than anyone else on the label, including "King Samuel," "Jump Out of the Frying Pan," "The Ark," and "Rub Up Push Up." He moved into rocksteady in 1966 with "The Higher the Monkey Climbs," "On a Saturday Night," "Here I Stand," and "Save a Bread," though "No Good Rudie" had already anticipated the style. His subject matter was consistent across both periods: proverbs, moral warnings, and the conduct of neighbors, which is rural material carried into an urban studio. He put the writing down to faith: "the whispering spirit is always whispering to me."

He stopped recording for Reid in 1972 but was with him when he departed. Jack Ruby produced the album Jezebel in 1976. Sonia Pottinger produced a run of singles in the late 1970s, among them "Rig-Ma-Roe Game" and "Wipe Your Weeping Eyes." "Travel with Love," recorded at Tuff Gong, appeared in 1984, after which he worked little in the studio, though he toured abroad through the 1990s. Horace Andy is his younger cousin.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. The Rough Guide says that "in early 1963 Duke discovered a singer who would prove the equal of the Maytals." Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 40. Bradley names Hinds among those with whom Reid "produced some of the best ska ever made." Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 98.
  2. The Rough Guide gives his birthplace as Steertown, St. Ann. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 40. The bars and beaches of Ocho Rios are from Wikipedia, citing Colin Larkin's Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music. "Justin Hinds," Wikipedia, accessed October 2, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Hinds.
  3. Wikipedia, citing Larkin. "Justin Hinds." D'Onofrio says only that a planned pairing with Dodd "didn't materialize" before Reid signed him. Francesca D'Onofrio, "In Memory of Justin Hinds," Jahworks, March 16, 2005, https://jahworks.org/francesca/in-memory-of-justin-hinds.
  4. The Rough Guide names Don Drummond in the band and Drumbago on drums. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 41. The Treasure Isle label credits "Tommy McCook & His Ska-Talite." "Justin Hines with the Dominoes, Tommy McCook & His Ska-Talite, Carry Go Bring Come," Treasure Isle single, Discogs, accessed October 2, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/7420499. Doumerc names McCook, Drumbago, and Jah Jerry, and dates the session to 1963; Wikipedia, citing Larkin, gives late 1963 and a single take. Eric Doumerc, "Justin Hinds and the Dominoes," Perfect Sound Forever, May 2007, https://www.furious.com/perfect/justinhinds.html; "Justin Hinds." Augustyn credits the trombone solo to Drummond. Heather Augustyn, "Rude Roots," SkaBook (blog), September 17, 2013, https://skabook.com/2013/09/17/rude-roots/. Katz says Theophilus Beckford played on "some of Justin Hinds and the Dominoes' biggest hits." David Katz, "Theophilus Beckford," Guardian, March 19, 2001, https://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/mar/19/guardianobituaries1.
  5. The Rough Guide says the lyric "starts out apparently accusing a woman of rumour-mongering" and calls it "one of the first records to articulate a Rasta point of view." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 41. Bradley cites its "blatant dread." Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 96.
  6. Wikipedia, citing Larkin. "Justin Hinds." D'Onofrio says it "remained for several weeks on the top of the local radio charts." D'Onofrio, "In Memory of Justin Hinds." Doumerc says it "remained in the charts for seven weeks." Doumerc, "Justin Hinds and the Dominoes." The Rough Guide calls it "a huge hit." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 41.
  7. The count is from Wikipedia, citing AllMusic. "Justin Hinds." The Rough Guide names "Botheration," "Corner Stone," "King Samuel," and "The Ark" among the follow-ups. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 41.
  8. Bradley lists "No Good Rudie" among records "from the first half of the sixties" that were "transparently rocksteady," only "too early to have been so named." Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 165. The other titles are from Wikipedia, citing Larkin. "Justin Hinds."
  9. Bradley says his Treasure Isle records were "forthright biblical morality tales that seemed to owe more to rural folk traditions than to present-day slum sufferation." Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 337. The Rough Guide speaks of his "rural-style voice and proverb-based lyrics." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 150.
  10. Ray Hurford, "Justin Hinds: The Whispering Spirit," Small Axe, accessed November 5, 2026, https://sites.google.com/view/smallaxereggae/justin-hinds.
  11. Wikipedia, citing Larkin. "Justin Hinds." Doumerc says that while Reid lived, Hinds "never recorded for another producer." Doumerc, "Justin Hinds and the Dominoes." D'Onofrio says he worked with Reid "through the mid 70's, until the time of Reid's death," which leaves the 1972 date unconfirmed. D'Onofrio, "In Memory of Justin Hinds."
  12. The Rough Guide says Island matched "Justin Hinds' distinctive rural feel to the horns-dominated production style" of Burning Spear's records for Jezebel, and that in the 1970s he recorded "first for Jack Ruby, then for Sonia Pottinger." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 149, 150.
  13. Wikipedia, citing Larkin. "Justin Hinds."
  14. Discogs lists the Nighthawk LP as a 1985 release; Doumerc also gives 1985. "Justin Hinds and the Dominoes, Travel with Love," Nighthawk LP, Discogs, accessed October 2, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/2475623; Doumerc, "Justin Hinds and the Dominoes." Wikipedia, citing Larkin, gives 1984 and Tuff Gong, and dates his first US tour to 1997; Doumerc dates the start of his international touring to a 1996 festival appearance. "Justin Hinds." D'Onofrio also places the recording at Tuff Gong. D'Onofrio, "In Memory of Justin Hinds."
  15. Wikipedia. "Justin Hinds."

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