Reggae star gets hero's funeral

The Associated Press

KINGSTON, Jamaica -- Thousands of people danced and cheered to reggae music Saturday as the man known on the Caribbean Island as Crown Prince of Reggae, Dennis Brown, was given a state-style funeral.

Despite a national outpouring of grief after Brown's July 1 death from pneumonia after years of illness, the tribute was more dynamic than dour.

Brown, who died at 42, was buried at Kingston's National Heroes Park, an exclusive cemetery reserved for such notables as Marcus Garvey, who became an international black nationalist leader, and independence leaders Alexander Bustamente and Norman Manley. Brown is the first entertainer at Heroes Park.

Crowds jammed the National Arena for the tribute, cheering on as musicians played.

Brown's five sons were among the performers, as well as reggae artists Maxi Priest and Shaggy, and gospel singer Carlene Davis. The concert was broadcast live on Jamaican television.

The mood was much more somber Thursday, when more than 10,000 mourners spent hours under a broiling sun to file past the casket where Brown lay. Many sobbed and wailed.

Historian Roger Stefans attributed the immense reaction to Brown's death to reggae's function as "Jamaica's true daily newspaper."

"It's not a bookish country, its traditions are more oral than printed and the people who most eloquently describe the island's conditions become heroes," Stefans said.

Brown rose to prominence in a 1970s wave of reggae singers that included Bob Marley, who introduced the catchy rhythm with its social-minded lyrics to listeners around the world.

Brown released more than 50 albums and a string of hit songs beginning with "No Man is an Island," which he recorded in 1969 at the age of 12.

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