Reggae artist Denroy Morgan had an active life in music that spanned decades, beginning when he moved to New York City from Jamaica in the mid-'60s to be a part of various bands, developing into a fruitful solo career that yielded excellent work like 1981's disco-reggae-funk hybrid album I'll Do Anything for You, and continuing into the 2000s and beyond. Over the years, Morgan's style took many different forms, moving between rap, dancehall, and roots reggae approaches on solo albums like 2017's Muzical Unity. His children also adopted his musical tendencies, with some of them forming the stylistically diverse Morgan Heritage and others enjoying solo careers. Shortly after Morgan's death in March 2022, his final album, Divine Destiny, was released.

Sources differ as to where and when Morgan was born -- it's believed he was either born in 1947 in Kingston, Jamaica's Spanish Town district or in 1946 in May Pen in Clarendon Parish. As a youngster, Morgan was friendly with Toots Hibbert, legendary vocalist with Toots the Maytals, but it wasn't until he pulled up stakes and moved to New York City that be began pursuing a career in music. In the late '60s, Morgan was playing reggae and rocksteady in New York with a group called the Mad Creators, as well as working with cover bands. By 1974, he had co-founded an American reggae band, the Black Eagles, who released a handful of singles on small labels and cut an album, Warning, in 1978.

In 1981, Morgan recorded a solo album, I'll Do Anything for You, which fused reggae and rap styles. The title track proved to be a hit, and RCA Records signed Morgan for the follow-up album, 1984's Make My Day. This would be one of his many career highlights, and also made him the first reggae artist to sign with RCA. In the mid-'80s, Morgan put his career on the back burner to focus on his family, and as it happened, there was plenty of talent in the Morgan household. Denroy's offspring would go on to form the reggae group Morgan Heritage and a hip-hop/dancehall act known as LSM, while Ray Gramps Morgan and Laza Morgan enjoyed solo careers, and Ray's son Jemere Morgan has also launched a recording career.

In 1998, Denroy Morgan relaunched his own career with the album Salvation, which found him embracing roots reggae and explicitly spiritual themes. He continued to focus on conscious reggae in the 21st century with albums like 2001's Cool Runnings and 2009's Theocracy Reign. In 2017, with Morgan in his seventies by the most generous estimate, he proved he wasn't slowing down with the release of his album Muzical Unity, another set of spiritual reggae featuring a cover of the Bob Marley/Peter Tosh classic "Get Up, Stand Up." Denroy Morgan died at his home in Lawrenceville, Georgia, on March 3, 2022, after being diagnosed with cancer; he was 76 years old. In April of that year, Divine Destiny was released, a studio album made in collaboration with Morgan's early band the Black Eagles. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi