Hugh Mundell was a Jamaica

Jamaica

Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...

n reggae

Reggae

Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...

 singer and songwriter.

Biography

Mundell was introduced to reggae by reggae performer and producer Boris Gardiner

Boris Gardiner

Boris Gardiner is a Jamaican singer, songwriter and bass guitarist.-Career:Gardiner performed on the tourist circuit for much of the 1960s and was a member of Carlos Malcolm & the Afro Caribs and Byron Lee's Dragonaires...

 who was a friend of the family (but did not live next door to Hugh, contrary to popular rumor). With Gardiner's assistance, Mundell recorded his first single "Where Is Natty Dread?" with producer Joe Gibbs

Joe Gibbs

Joe Jackson Gibbs is a former American football coach, NASCAR Championship team owner, and two time NHRA Pro Stock team owner. He was the 20th and 26th head coach in the history of the Washington Redskins...

 at the age of 13.

In 1978, at the age of 16, he recorded the album Africa Must Be Free By 1983, produced by Augustus Pablo

Augustus Pablo

Horace Swaby , known as Augustus Pablo, was a Jamaican roots reggae and dub record producer, melodica player and keyboardist, active from the 1970s onwards. He popularized the use of the melodica in reggae music...

, with Mundell writing all the songs. It included two Black Ark-recorded titles: "Let's All Unite" and "Why Do Black Man Fuss & Fight", both supervised and mixed by Lee Perry. The album received five stars from Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...

magazine and was included in Tom Moon's 2008 book, 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die

1000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die

1,000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die is a musical reference book written by Tom Moon, published in 2008.It consists of a list of recordings, mostly albums, arranged alphabetically by artist or composer, starting with ABBA's Gold and concluding with ZZ Top's Tres Hombres...

.

Mundell recorded several 12" singles under the alias Jah Levi.

Mundell was shot to death in 1983 while sitting in a vehicle with friend and fellow musician Junior Reid

Junior Reid

Delroy "Junior" Reid is a Jamaican reggae and dancehall musician, best known for the songs "One Blood" and "Funny Man", as well as being the man that replaced Michael Rose as lead vocalist for Black Uhuru.-Biography:...

in Kingston, Jamaica. At the time of his death, Mundell had produced five LPs and numerous singles.