Daniel ‘Blae’ Minott Praises The ‘Dalla Billz’

Daniel ‘Blae’ Minott, son of late famous reggae singer, Lincoln ‘Sugar’ Minott, is doing a Pontius Pilate of the court battle involving the Minott family estate.

“I don’t know nothing about the case as I’m exhausted with the matter,” Blae Minott said, bluntly.

Since Minott’s death intestate on July 10, 2010, there were competing claims, so the matter headed to the courts.

“I will just let the courts and the lawyers sort things out, Maxine (Stowe) or Pashon might be more better to explain the situation. I am just here trying to create a legacy for my kids to benefit from and feel good about,” he said.

Sugar Minott’s wife, Maxine Stowe, had been feuding with several of Minott’s children for years over matters concerning his estate and his life celebration event.

Sugar Minott married music executive Maxine Stowe, niece of Clement Coxsone Dodd in 1993, who at the time was working at Columbia Records. The couple had met at Coxsone’s Music City in Brooklyn, New York, in 1978, where they collaborated and produced the album, Roots Lovers. They remained married until his death.

“Our respective lawyers are now mediating the next steps to conclude the way forward with the Administrator General [Department] for the upcoming hearing,” Stowe said.

Blae’s sister Pashon, who was once Stowe’s most vocal critic, is ready to let peace reign.

“Maxine and I, and a few of my siblings, have been in dialogue. We want everything to be under one umbrella, and I know that once Maxine and I are in constant dialogue, and on great terms, things will move along well,” shared Pashon, whose mother had four children with the musical great.

In the meantime, Blae Minott is pushing his get-money single, Dalla Billz, to drive home his belief that money will always hold significant power in modern day society.

“There’s nothing funny about not having money. We are living in a pay to live world, so money is always relevant and so I felt like expressing that belief musically,” Blae Minott said.

The song is one of the tracks from his ‘I Am Dancehall’ EP released on his own On My Block imprint. He cited the scripture, Ecclesiastes 10:19, to drive home his point: “A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry: but money answereth all things.”

“Money answereth all things. Dalla Billz is just me trying to express to the youth and people of today to be serious about getting their money right because neither the government nor the church is gonna do it for you,” he added.

Born in Kingston, Minott had an early interest in music and began expressing his love for the art when his father tried to form a group with his siblings in 1986. They attempted to record their first single Reggae The Beat, but the song was never released and the group was disbanded.

Minott never lost his love for the music and later became one of the in-house studio engineers at the age of 15, working alongside Carlo Gray at the Youthman Promotion studio. In 1999, he decided to start recording again, putting his songwriting skills to work. He recorded his first official song, Can’t Take It No More, with his label mate Tampanae at the Youth Promotion recording studio, and the song was added to local radio playlists.

He has continued to record music on his own My Block Records label. He released his reggae-focused ‘Citizen of Love’ EP earlier this year.