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 →

Randy Chin

Producer. Ska, rocksteady, reggae

Active
1958-2003
Sunrise
October 3, 1937, Kingston, Jamaica
Sunset
February 2, 2003

Vincent "Randy" Chin ran Randy's, the Kingston record shop, label, and studio at 17 North Parade, and with his wife Patricia founded VP Records in New York, now the largest independent label and distributor of Caribbean music.

He was the son of a Chinese carpenter who spent a short time in Cuba before settling in Jamaica in the 1920s. As a teenager in the early 1950s he stocked and maintained jukeboxes in the island's bars for Isaac Issa, and kept the records he took out of the machines. They were the opening stock of the first Randy's, on the corner of East and Tower Streets, in 1958. The name came from Randy's Record Mart of Gallatin, Tennessee, whose sponsored rhythm and blues program could be picked up in Kingston at night, and the nickname followed from the shop.

He was among the first shopkeepers to issue locally recorded music. The early catalog is ska and Jamaican rhythm and blues: Lord Creator's "Independent Jamaica" (1962), which Island issued in Britain as its first release there, and his later "Babylon"; the Maytals' "John and James"; Alton Ellis and Eddie Perkins as Alton and Eddie, Ellis's "Mouth a Massy," and John Holt's "Rum Bumper" with Ellis; Jackie Opel and Basil Gabbidon; sessions by the Skatalites; and Rico Rodriguez's "Lightning Street."

The shop moved in the early 1960s to a former ice cream parlor at 16-17 North Parade, where it traded as Randy's Record Mart and stocked every label it could get. Chin later bought the whole building and put a studio upstairs, for his own sessions and for rent to other producers; that room, Randy's Studio 17, has its own entry. His brothers Victor and Keith ran branches of Randy's in New York. The family moved into pressing and distribution, and by the early 1970s Vincent's eldest son, Clive Chin, was producing for their Impact label.

Later in the 1970s, with political violence in Kingston at its height, Vincent and Patricia moved to New York and opened VP Records in Jamaica, Queens, naming it from their initials. Their sons followed, the studio on North Parade fell silent, and the shop stayed in the family's hands until the end of the 1990s. VP grew into the largest reggae record company in the United States, formed a distribution partnership with Atlantic in 2002, and later acquired Greensleeves. Chin retired to Miami as diabetes wore down his health and departed in Fort Lauderdale at sixty-five. The family still runs VP, which has reissued the Randy's catalog through its 17 North Parade series; a three-CD set marked the label's fiftieth year in 2008.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. The Rough Guide gives his birth as October 3, 1937, in Kingston, places the shop at 16/17 North Parade, and notes the family's VP Distribution Company in Queens. Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 46. VP calls itself "the world's largest independent record label." "VP History," VP Records, accessed October 5, 2026, https://vprecords.com/vp-history/.
  2. David Katz, "Vincent 'Randy' Chin," obituary, Guardian, February 22, 2003, https://www.theguardian.com/news/2003/feb/22/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries.
  3. Katz names Isaac Issa and dates the shop to 1958. Katz, "Vincent 'Randy' Chin." The Gleaner gives Abe Issa and 1959, and VP gives 36 East Street. "The Music Diaries: The Birth of VP Records," Jamaica Gleaner, December 30, 2018, http://past.jamaica-gleaner.com/article/entertainment/20181230/music-diaries-birth-vp-records; "VP History." Clive Chin dated the start to October 1959. "Celebrating 50 Years of Randy's," Jamaica Gleaner, April 22, 2008, http://old.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20080422/ent/ent3.html.
  4. Katz says the name "was inspired by a Tennessee record store that sponsored a late night R&B radio show." Katz, "Vincent 'Randy' Chin." See also "The Birth of VP Records." Augustyn names the station as WLAC in Nashville and the Gallatin shop's owner as Randy Wood. Heather Augustyn, "Randy's Records," SkaBook (blog), December 28, 2017, https://skabook.com/2017/12/28/randys-records/.
  5. Katz, "Vincent 'Randy' Chin."
  6. The Rough Guide calls Lord Creator "the biggest success for Vincent Chin" and names Jackie Opel, John Holt, Alton Ellis and the Skatalites. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 46; on the Maytals' "John & James" and "Mouth a Massy," Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 47. Katz: "The first single issued on Chris Blackwell's Island label was Creator's Independent Jamaica (1962), produced by Vincent." Katz, "Vincent 'Randy' Chin." For the British single, "Lord Creator - Independent Jamaica," Discogs, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/8768577. On Gabbidon, "Rum Bumper" and Alton and Eddie, "The Birth of VP Records." No source was read for "Babylon" or "Lightning Street."
  7. Katz dates the move to 1962 and describes the building as "a former ice cream parlour facing Victoria Park." Katz, "Vincent 'Randy' Chin." The Rough Guide says the shop at 16/17 North Parade was "a Kingston music business landmark by the early 1960s." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 46.
  8. Katz says the four-track studio was "fully functional from late 1968." Katz, "Vincent 'Randy' Chin." Bradley also dates its opening to 1968. Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 331.
  9. Katz dates the New York branches, run with Victor and Keith, from 1969. Katz, "Vincent 'Randy' Chin."
  10. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 330 (Impact "was one of the Chin's labels"); Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 223.
  11. The Rough Guide says the family moved to the United States "in the mid-1970s" and "in mid-decade." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 46, 223. Katz dates the move to 1979; VP's own history gives both 1977, for the first Jamaica Avenue shop, and 1979. Katz, "Vincent 'Randy' Chin." "VP History." The two books disagree, so the bio gives no year.
  12. Katz, "Vincent 'Randy' Chin."
  13. VP dates the Greensleeves purchase to 2008 in one place and 2007 in another, and connects its Atlantic partnership with Sean Paul's 2003 success. "VP History." Wikipedia gives 2002 for the Atlantic deal. "Randy Chin," Wikipedia, accessed October 5, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Chin.
  14. Katz: Vincent "moved to Miami to establish a wing of VP in Florida before retiring, as the diabetes took a gradual toll on his health." Katz, "Vincent 'Randy' Chin." Wikipedia's infobox gives Fort Lauderdale, and the Miami New Times puts his funeral in Broward County. "Randy Chin," Wikipedia, accessed November 5, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Chin. "Chin Music," Miami New Times, accessed November 5, 2026, https://www.miaminewtimes.com/?p=40365878.
  15. VP says the 17 North Parade label was created in 2007. "VP History." The anniversary set was announced as two CDs and a DVD. "Celebrating 50 Years of Randy's."

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