Got to Be Tough! Toots and the Maytals release a new single! Listen on Surforeggae!

The first studio record in a decade will be released on August 28 through Trojan Jamaica / BMG. This Friday, June 12, legendary Jamaican artist Frederick “Toots” Hibbert returns with his first studio release in more than a decade. “Got To Be Tough” (the title track from the record arriving on August 28) is a knockout that comes to renew the nearly six-decade career of the man who launched a new sound and musical genre with his 1968 hit “Do The Reggay”. Yes, Toots Hibbert coined the term “reggay”, which later came to refer to the musical style, derived from ska and rocksteady, that was emerging in Jamaica. “Got To Be Tough” shows that all the roots of the Black diaspora run through Toots' creative veins. Blues, soul, R&B, funk, jazz, reggae... Toots honors and embodies these sounds while seeking to survive and thrive amid our earthly challenges. You have to be tough when things get hard." - warns the institution of world reggae, Toots and The Maytals. "Got to be Tough" is a tenacious track that balances joy and anger, pain and healing. Production is by Toots himself (musician and songwriter, Grammy winner), the punk-funk guitar is by Zak Starkey (co-founder of the Trojan Jamaica label and son of legendary Beatles drummer Ringo Starr), drums are by master Sly Dunbar (Sly & Robbie), and percussion is by New Orleans icon Cyril Neville.