The keeper of the castle that is Jamaican music, Patricia Chin tells the story of her life’s work with “Miss Pat: My Reggae Music Journey.”

Long before they turned their VP Records label and distributorship into a worldwide, independent empire with offices around the globe moving all forms of Caribbean music, past and present, Vincent “Randy” Chin and his wife Patricia “Miss Pat” Chin ran a full-house recording studio, Studio 17, and a record label. Opening in Kingston, Jamaica before moving to Jamaica, Queens, the Chins—who eventually placed everything under the VP umbrella—were two of the first people to produce, manufacture, and sell homegrown artists to Jamaican audiences by the likes of John Holt, Alton Ellis, and Lord Creator. The Chins had a house band, Randy’s All-Stars, that included keyboardist Augustus Pablo, Wailers bassist and keyboard player Aston “Familyman” Barrett and Tyrone Downie, and drummer Sly Dunbar. Lee Perry recorded some of Bob Marley and the Wailers’ first tracks there, as did eventual reggae superstars Dennis Brown, Gregory Isaacs, and Johnny Nash.

That they were able to repeat the same trick in New York City may not have made Vincent happy, as he missed his homeland, but here, his wife Miss Pat thrived to become the First Lady of Jamaican music—from ska to reggaeton. Once here, VP became the largest reggae record company in America (especially after its acquisition of Greensleeves Records and its distribution/marketing partnership with Atlantic Records), with Miss Pat continuing on in her role, even after her husband passed in 2003.

For all this Miss Pat has a world of memories to go with her present and future plans (yes, at 80-plus years old she still goes into work everyday) and has created a gorgeous coffee table book/completist memoir titled Miss Pat: My Reggae Music Journey. The colorful, large-scale tome not only tells the tale of Miss Pat’s life with her husband and how reggae was made and sold in the Chins’ image, but also the story of a strong woman in what was once considered the boy’s club of the record industry. We caught up with Miss Pat while on a break from her VP duties.

Read the interview on floodmagazine.com