Lowell Fillmore “Sly” Dunbar, a Jamaican drummer and one-half of the production duo Sly and Robbie, has died at the age of 73, sources confirmed to The Guardian. “About 7 o’clock this morning, I went to wake him up and he wasn’t responding,” Dunbar’s wife, Thelma, told the Jamaican newspaper The Gleaner, which confirmed that the artist died on Monday morning. “I knew he was sick… but I didn’t know that he was this sick,” Thelma said. Famed British DJ David Rodigan called Dunbar a “true icon.” Dunbar connected with Robbie Shakespeare—who died in 2021—in 1972, and the pair quickly became the most in-demand rhythm section in reggae, releasing more than 30 albums during their time together. The two formed their own record label, Taxi Records, in 1980. Dunbar was a 13-time Grammy nominee and a two-time winner, receiving awards in 1985 for Best Reggae Recording for the Black Uhuru album Anthem, for which Dunbar and Shakespeare were producers, and in 1999 for Best Reggae Album for the Sly and Robbie album Friends. No official cause of death has been reported.
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