Cocoa Tea was born in Rocky Point, Clarendon on September 3, 1959, where he was christened Calvin George Scott. His father left Jamaica for the USA very early in his life, resulting in him being raised by his mother. As a youth he sang on his church choir, and at around age 14 he hooked up with a group of youths who called themselves the Rockydonians as the Clarendonians were already in existence.
Around the same time, he hooked up with Willie Francis, a popular local singer who had already done a song “Oh, What a Mini.” Francis would switch from singing, becoming a producer. The group recorded one song with Francis while Cocoa Tea recorded the single “Searching in the Hills.”The song was written by one of the group’s members Keith Morgan (Sang Hugh) and recorded at Channel One Studio in 1974 and featured Flabba Holt . The song however would soon vanish without a trace. According to Cocoa-Tea, he moved around for a while and when nothing materialized, he found himself at Caymanas Park in St. Catherine where he tried his hand at becoming a jockey. When that didn’t work out, he returned to the country where he got back into fishing. In 1980 he returned to the studio with a song called “Summertime” and a second song “Big Iron” a remake of Marty Robbins’ song. According to Cocoa Tea, someone on the radio advised him that the song sounded like bitter cerasee-tea as they threw the record away.
Cocoa Tea was determined nevertheless to stay in the business and resorted to picking up the mic at sound system events. Since all the big sounds would normally pass through Rocky Point in Clarendon including Kilamanjaro, Metro Media, Socialist Roots, Stur Gav, Black Harmony etc and he sang on all of them. It was here that he met up with Henry "Junjo" Lawes and within a few years the practice soon brought him into the music limelight. He hooked up with promoter Henry "Junjo" Lawes’ camp.
According to Cocoa Tea: “In those days you couldn’t go to a dance an sing over other people’s songs. You had to come original.” This forced him to write original lyrics and because he had the ability to change his own singing key (which is the most important thing in music) any rhythm they put on the turntable, he was able to sing on them. This became the secret of his success, and he used it to devastating effect in the Dancehall. Peter Metro, Josey Wales, Charlie Chaplin- he destroyed them all. Cocoa-Tea stated that he had a friend who had a girlfriend from Old Harbour by the name of Sonia. The friend and Sonia had a big war, and it was out of this disagreement between them that led him to writing the lyrics of a song called “Lost My Sonia,” a song which he drew on prodigiously at the sound system clashes and every time he drew for it, he tore the place down. In 1983, the Volcano sound system came to Rocky Point with the likes of Louis Lepke, Lee Van Cleef, Ranking Toyan, and Little John, among others. They encouraged him to come to Kingston to meet Junjo. In February of that year he journeyed to Kingston where he met Junjo Lawes at Myrie Avenue. He sang acapella and Josey Wales declared that “any man who can mek me dance to a chune widout music, haffi buss eena di business.” Junjo took him to Harry J’s studio where he recorded “Who are the champion,” Rocking Dolly,” "Informer," and "Can't Stop Cocoa Tea" and “Lost My Sonia,” which became a massive hit. Cocoa Tea’s output soon put him in the same league as the likes of Barrington Levy, Sugar Minott, Frankie Paul, and Half Pint. According to Cocoa Tea though, Junjo hardly had anything to do with the material he created. Junjo put up the money. Eventually, Junjo shifted his operations overseas to New York where he became involved in drugs and was convicted and imprisoned. This resulted in Cocoa Tea moving over to Cornerstone Records in Greenwich Farm, where he did two albums for the owner Michael Chin – “Settle Down,” and “Mr. Cocoa Tea.” From there he moved to Jammy’s where in 1985, he released the album, “Wha Dem a Go Do- Can’t Stop Cocoa Tea,” which was a compilation of many of his previous successes (including a slightly different version, “Rocking Dolly”, which was later issued in the U.S.). King Jammy became Tea's primary producer just as he was beginning to expand his focus to Rastafarian lyrical themes. The results included two albums, 1986's The Marshall and 1987's Come Again, and hit singles in those two title tracks, "Tune In," and "Settle Down," among others. In 1989, a supergroup featuring Cocoa Tea, Shabba Ranks, and Home T recorded together under the auspices of both King Jammy and Gussie Clark. The resulting album, Holding On, was a major hit in Jamaica, as were the singles "Pirates Anthem" and "Who She Love." Other notable tracks from the album included “Camoflage”, “Stop Spreading Rumors”, “Turn it Down”, “Holding On”, “First Date.”That notwithstanding, Cocoa Tea was still an extremely viable solo artist, and recorded the biggest socially conscious hit of his career to date, "Riker's Island," in 1991, and supported it with an album of the same name. His strident anti-Gulf War commentaries "Oil Ting" and "No Blood for Oil" were banned on radio in Jamaica and the U.K.; the latter was included on a second supergroup album titled “Another One for the Road’”, for which Cutty Ranks replaced Shabba. Cocoa Tea's next major solo hit was the lovers rock tune "Good Life," produced by Phillip “Fattis” Burrell. He was able to maintain a steady, solid level of popularity into the late '90s, with hits for Burrell’s1996's "Israel King," 1997's King Sporty cover, "I'm Not a King" with Cutty Ranks, and Bobby “Digital” Dixon’s 1995's "Holy Mount Zion", plus a collaboration with Cutty Ranks on the 1997 Bob Marley cover "Waiting in Vain."Much of his mid-'90s material was collected on Holy Mount Zion, which was released in 1997 by the legendary Motown label. Further albums included 1998's “One Away” Tracks: One Away Woman, Mr. Neck-Tie Man, Burn Satan, Who Jump the Gun, Love Rain, How Do You Do.
and 2001's “Feel The Power.” Tracks include: L.O.V.E, Feel the Power, No time to Lose, Sniper, Sweet Life, Auction Block, Sinners Surrender. In 2003, Coco Tea started the annual New Year's Eve event Dancehall Jam Jam. It ran until 2009, with plans to resurrect it in 2015. After recording for many of the top reggae labels including VP Records, Greensleeves Records and Ras Records, he started his own Roaring Lion label around 2000.
In March 2008, the name Cocoa Tea was on the lips of many persons after he released a song titled Barack Obama, in support of the then US presidential candidate, who subsequently won the elections.
Coco Tea died this morning at hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He was 65 years old. He is survived by his wife, Malvia and eight children.
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