Vincent "Randy" Chin

Biography Chin was the son of a carpenter who left mainland China for a brief stay in Cuba, and then permanently settled in the 1920s in Jamaica. As a teenager in the early 1950s, Vincent oversaw the stocking and maintenance of jukeboxes in the island's bars for Isaac Issa, a prominent Syrian-Jamaican businessman. He kept the excess and replaced records and used them to open up his Randy's Records store on the corner of East and Tower streets in Kingston in 1958 on (the name coming from an American record store that sponsored an R&B radio show that could be picked up on the island). His son, Clive Chin, explained: "He kept dem records, and that was the springboard of his business, y'know?".

He began recording local artists, becoming one of the first to issue locally recorded music on the island. Other early hits included releases by Basil Gabbidon, Jackie Opel, John Holt, and the duo Alton & Eddie (Alton Ellis and Eddie Perkins). In 1962, Chin relocated the store to a former ice cream parlour at 16–17 North Parade, and he and his wife Patricia set up a recording studio above the shop, which became known locally as Studio 17. In 2002, the label later formed a distribution/marketing partnership with Atlantic Records.

Contributing artist The Rough Guide to Dub (2005, World Music Network)