Claudius Linton has been played on NTS shows including Throwing Shade, with Backra Massa first played on 9 May 2015.

With a toot of the horn, Bob Marley pulled his BMW off the rutted Jamaican road and hopped out to warmly greet a Rasta sitting on the grass. Onlookers gaped as the man who made reggae a global sensation sat down on the dusty roadside to talk and share a laugh. Who was this man who could readily command an audience from the island's favorite son? It was Marley's old Trenchtown friend Claudius “Kingman” Linton, the roots reggae singer known around the Kingston recording studios for his soulful voice and his knack for a killer melody.

Claudius and singing partner Cecil Hemmings, known first as the Angelic Brothers and later the Hofner Brothers, rose with Trenchtown's other reggae greats from early 1960's ska singles to the crest of reggae's '70's heyday. The Hofner Brothers popularity soared when their single “Kingman Is Back” competed in the finals of the 1972 Jamaican Festival Song Competition against the tunes from Junior Byles and Toots & the Maytals. Toots won the contest, but the crowd roared for more of Claudius's powerful vocals and electrifying stage show.

Linton and Hemmings parted ways after recording a half-dozen singles, and Claudius went out on his own, releasing his catchy songs and strong messages of unity and peace during key moments of Jamaica's violent election cycles. “We were telling people of what Marcus Garvey and Martin Luther King said; but they wouldn't listen,” Linton says. “Today we're singing about Baghdad, about Iraq. But it's the same oppression, it's the same urgent message coming through on our new Kingman & Jonah CD. We are trying to sing some reality to the people.”

In 1976, Claudius hit the top of the charts with the Rasta consciousness anthem “Crying Time,” and followed it up with another 10 years of the classic roots reggae tracks now compiled on the reisssue CD Roots Master. Today, the original 45s can trade hands for hundreds of dollars.

Linton is the living history of reggae. Singing lessons with “father of reggae” Joe Higgs along with fellow future stars Bob Marley and Peter Tosh. The Rolling Stones Jamaican recording sessions for Goat's Head Soup. Linton was there. But after recording “Reduce The Arms Race”/”Chun Pon Nanie” with famed reggae producer Jack Ruby in 1984, Claudius disappeared from the scene.

Today Kingman is back. A chance meeting on the beach in Negril, JA, united him with American producer/musician Ian "Jonah" Jones. They began recording new material right away, and Jones began the worldwide hunt for Claudius's old singles. “When I began to compile Claudius' back catalog, his fans started appearing from around the globe to help out. They all asked me to produce a reissue collection so they wouldn't have to spend a fortune searching for expensive and rare singles,” Jones says. “And they all want Claudius to get his due, at long last, as a crucial reggae talent.”