Jimmy Cliff, Reggae Pioneer Passes Away at 81
Consequence.net
Posted on: November 25th, 2025
Posted on: November 25th, 2025
Jimmy Cliff, the reggae music pioneer whose role in the 1972 film The Harder They Come and its accompanying soundtrack was instrumental in introducing the genre to international audiences, has died at the age of 81.
According to an Instagram post by Cliff's wife, Latifa Chambers, the musician died due to complications from a seizure followed by pneumonia. "Jimmy, my darling, may you rest in peace," Chambers wrote in her post. "To all his fans around the world," she added, "please know that your support was his strength throughout his whole career."
Born James Chambers, but known professionally as Jimmy Cliff, the musician was affectionally known as the "Jamaican Bob Dylan." The real Bob Dylan himself once called Cliff's 1970 track "Vietnam" the best protest song he had ever heard. Cliff scored a series of early hits with songs like Many Rivers to Cross and You Can Get It If You Really Want in the late 1960s, but his big break came with the 1972 Jamaican crime film The Harder They Come.
Cliff was one of five performers inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010, and is one of only two Jamaicans in the Hall of Fame, the other being Bob Marley.
(In Memoriam: July 20th, 1944 - November 24th, 2025)
According to an Instagram post by Cliff's wife, Latifa Chambers, the musician died due to complications from a seizure followed by pneumonia. "Jimmy, my darling, may you rest in peace," Chambers wrote in her post. "To all his fans around the world," she added, "please know that your support was his strength throughout his whole career."
Born James Chambers, but known professionally as Jimmy Cliff, the musician was affectionally known as the "Jamaican Bob Dylan." The real Bob Dylan himself once called Cliff's 1970 track "Vietnam" the best protest song he had ever heard. Cliff scored a series of early hits with songs like Many Rivers to Cross and You Can Get It If You Really Want in the late 1960s, but his big break came with the 1972 Jamaican crime film The Harder They Come.
Cliff was one of five performers inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010, and is one of only two Jamaicans in the Hall of Fame, the other being Bob Marley.
(In Memoriam: July 20th, 1944 - November 24th, 2025)