{"id":12240,"date":"2026-03-06T08:04:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T08:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/?p=12240"},"modified":"2026-03-20T11:00:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T11:00:15","slug":"reggae-world-mourns-the-passing-lazah-current","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/?p=12240","title":{"rendered":"Reggae World Mourns the Passing Lazah Current"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hal Duggan, the Jamaican Canadian reggae artist known globally as Lazah Current, died unexpectedly on Wednesday, March 4, 2026. He was a singer, producer and philosopher whose five decades in music traced the full arc of the Caribbean diaspora experience \u2014 from the hills of Manchester, Jamaica, to the concert stages of Toronto, Kingston, the United States, Cuba and beyond.<\/p>\n

The reggae world, which he had served with uncommon devotion and intellectual rigour, fell into mourning. Tributes poured in from musicians, community members, and fans within hours of the news breaking.<\/p>\n

Duggan was born in the parish of Manchester, Jamaica, in the 1970s, into a landscape rich in music and oral tradition. He migrated to Toronto at an early age, enrolling at Humber College \u2014 a decision that would prove formative. There, he became embedded in a network of musicians determined to forge a distinctly northern reggae identity, one that honoured its Jamaican roots while fully inhabiting Canadian urban life.<\/p>\n

That college network would evolve into the foundation of his first major professional venture and eventually into his tenure with Messenjah, the JUNO Award-winning band that defined Canadian reggae throughout the 1980s and 1990s.<\/p>\n

The band became the first reggae band to be signed to a major record label. They performed widely across North America and Cuba, carrying the message of social consciousness far beyond Ontario’s borders. Their landmark performance at Reggae Sunsplash in Jamaica \u2014 the most prestigious reggae festival in the world \u2014 was, by Duggan’s own account, the moment he felt the diaspora’s music had been validated by the source itself.<\/p>\n

Despite two decades of Canadian success, Duggan felt a pull that no award could satisfy. He understood, with deep conviction, that Jamaica was “the rock” \u2014 the only true testing ground. He left behind the comfort of an established career and returned to the island, seeking to rebuild his reputation from the ground up before audiences who would judge him on what he brought them that day, not on his past accolades.<\/p>\n

That period of reconstruction yielded some of his finest work. His collaboration with the venerated Luciano on the track “Power to the People”<\/em><\/strong> became a global anthem, achieving heavy rotation worldwide and cementing his standing as both artist and producer under his own Lazah Records imprint.<\/p>\n

The single “Jane & Finch”<\/em><\/strong> \u2014 recorded at Coptic Sound studio in Toronto after producer Coptic introduced him to the riddim \u2014 became one of his most beloved tracks, a sonic tribute to the community that had raised him in Canada. Duggan recalled that the melody came instantly, a creative flash that he recognized as a gift.<\/p>\n

His solo catalog \u2014 anchored by albums including \u201cGlorious Ride\u201d<\/em><\/strong> and the 2011 release \u201cBetta Tomorrow\u201d<\/em><\/strong> \u2014 spanned collaborations with Switzerland’s Ranks Production, the Warrior Love band, and a devoted following built on singles such as “Cry Me,”<\/em><\/strong> “Lately,”<\/em><\/strong> and “Hey Girl.”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Music was never separate from Duggan’s activism. As a senior statesman he used every platform \u2014 stage, studio, press conference \u2014 to champion Pan-Africanism and social justice. He was also a member of Reggae North Canada Inc at the inception of the Organization.<\/p>\n

\"\"He performed at the Whitehouse Cultural Jam in Westmoreland to support the fight against domestic violence, a cause he described as deeply personal as “a proud father.” And he waged a sustained campaign to have the Jamaican government formally honour Marcus Garvey: petitioning for August to be declared “Marcus Garvey Month,” August 17th to be made a national holiday, and for St. Ann’s Bay \u2014 Garvey’s birthplace capital \u2014 to be renamed in his honour.<\/p>\n

In his last years, Current turned toward Artificial Intelligence \u2014 not as novelty, but as philosophical inquiry. His final single, “AI,”<\/em><\/strong> co-produced with LR Productions, drew inspiration from robotic construction and SpaceX Falcon 9 launches as a meditation on technology’s promise and peril.<\/p>\n

He road-tested the track in Jamaican venues and considered it validated when audiences sang back the chorus. His warning was characteristically measured: AI could reach “unreachable goals,” but risked rendering music a “non-emotional entity” if humanity lost sight of its soul.<\/p>\n

News of Duggan’s death sent a wave of grief through the Caribbean diaspora communities of Greater Toronto Area, Montreal, other parts of Canada, the USA and Jamaica where his music had taken root.<\/p>\n

Colleagues recalled a man of boundless generosity and relentless creative energy \u2014who could move from a dancehall stage in Westmoreland to a government petition in Kingston without breaking stride.<\/p>\n

“He never stopped,” said one long-time associate who asked not to be named. “Right up to the end, he was recording, he was planning, he was fighting for something. That’s who Lazah was. He didn’t know another way to be.<\/p>\n

Funeral arrangements had not been announced at press time. Reggae North will provide further coverage as details emerge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hal Duggan, the Jamaican Canadian reggae artist known globally as Lazah Current, died unexpectedly on Wednesday, March 4, 2026. He was a singer, producer and philosopher whose five decades in music traced the full arc of the Caribbean diaspora experience \u2014 from the hills of Manchester, Jamaica, to the concert stages of Toronto, Kingston, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12230,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[240,239],"tags":[82],"class_list":["post-12240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-canadian-news","category-international-news","tag-featured"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12240"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12244,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12240\/revisions\/12244"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}