Beres Hammond To Receive Honorary Degree From University Of The West Indies

Reggae icon Beres Hammond will join Rita Marley and Jimmy Cliff as music legends presented with honorary degrees by the University of the West Indies (UWI) Mona Campus, come November.

The UWI has announced that during its graduation ceremony at the Mona Campus in Kingston between November 3 and 4, the Putting Up Resistance singer, whose full title is Hugh Beresford Hammond, O.J., will be among four Jamaicans who will receive honorary degrees, the others being the late businessman Lascelles Chin, Ambassador Audrey Marks, and Professor E. Dale Abel.

In paying tribute to Hammond, and highlighting why he was chosen for the award, the UWI noted that the St. Mary native, who was presented with the Order of Jamaica in 2013 “for his exceptional and dedicated contribution to the Jamaican music industry”, “has thrilled generations with his smoky-sweet voice” throughout his five-decade career.

“From the funked-up Reggae jams of the 1970s fusion band ‘Zap Pow’, where he was a lead singer, to the lush instrumentation of his 1976 album Soul Reggae, to the spare digital beat of his 1985 dancehall breakthrough, What One Dance Can Do,” the institution noted in a release.

“Hugh Beresford Hammond’s early foray in music came through his participation at talent shows but his first release, The Wanderer would be the start of a prolific career, which has, so far, produced 22 solo albums, from Soul Reggae on the Water Lilly Label (1976), to Let’s Make A Song on the Brotherhood Music Inc. (1981), to Lifetime Guarantee on Greensleeves Label (1997) to an astonishing 13 albums for VP Records,” it added.

In continuing its veneration of Hammond, the UWI said that “his spontaneous method of composing, and unwillingness to compromise on the quality of his sound, made a home studio the natural choice for many and continues to attract a steady stream of Jamaica’s most talented musicians”.

“In 2002, the album Music Is Life, was nominated for the Grammy Award for ‘Best Reggae Album’. The album contained two of what would become Hammond’s top songs, Rock Away and They Gonna Talk. On January 1, 2023, Beres partnered with long-time musical partner, Buju Banton, to produce one of the biggest live concerts in Jamaica’s history, at Plantation Cove, St. Ann,” it added.

In 2015 Rita Marley, widow of the late iconic reggae artist, Bob Marley and former member of the singing group the I Threes also received a Honourary Doctor of Letters from the UWI, Mona. 

At the time, she was described by the UWI as making invaluable contributions to the Jamaican music industry as singer, producer, performer and entrepreneur and for building “a globally recognised empire with members of the Marley family, and, by extension, the spread and reach of Brand Jamaica as a related and intertwined category”.

Jimmy Cliff was similarly awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters by the University.

According to the UWI, the annual tradition of conferring honorary degrees, which coincides this year with the regional university’s 75th jubilee celebrations, will commemorate the outstanding contributions made by persons such as Hammond, to their communities and the wider society.

It said the honorees will join hundreds of students across the Five Islands, Cave Hill, St Augustine, Mona, and Global (formerly Open Campus) campuses who are graduating and marking the end of their studies.

The UWI accolade will fall amongst a long list of awards Beres has received over the years, both at home and abroad. 

In October 2013, the Government of Jamaica had presented him with the Order of Jamaica, for “his exceptional and dedicated contribution to the Jamaican music industry”.

A decade before, in October 2003, he also received a proclamation from Brooklyn Councilwoman, Yvette Clarke, at the Consulate General of Jamaica in New York, “in honour of his great contribution to music”.

Last month, on August 20, 2023, he was also awarded with an award in recognition of his exemplary dedication and soulful musical artistry by the Jamaican Museum and Cultural Center in Atlanta, Georgia.

His most recent accolade was the Elite Icon Award, presented by the Caribbean Music Awards.