Ja­maican reg­gae lovers and artistes in the New York Met­ro­pol­i­tan Area are pay­ing glow­ing trib­utes to leg­endary Ja­maican singer, song­writer and ac­tor Jim­my Cliff, who died on Mon­day at the age of 81 years.

Cliff, who has been cred­it­ed with in­tro­duc­ing reg­gae to an in­ter­na­tion­al au­di­ence, pri­mar­i­ly through his per­for­mance in the land­mark film, “The Hard­er They Come” (1972).

“There will for­ev­er be a part of Jim­my that will res­onate and re­main with my fam­i­ly for time to come,” Ja­maican-born, New York-based at­tor­ney Mer­rick J. Dammar told the Caribbean Me­dia Cor­po­ra­tion (CMC).