VP Records’ Patricia ‘Miss Pat’ Chin: “Retire Is Not A Word I Use”

Veteran music entrepreneur Patricia “Miss Pat” Chin isn’t slowing down anytime soon. “Music is my life and I still have to keep the momentum going from the past sixty years. I love to communicate and unite people. Doing nothing is not my goal,” she said in a release to DancehallMag.

At 86, Miss Pat is as enthusiastic as ever about Reggae music and nurturing talent. This Saturday, April 20, marks International Record Store Day, and VP Records, the label she co-founded, is gearing up for a special celebration at its flagship store in Jamaica, Queens, and its retail store in Miramar, Florida.

The special guest for the day at the Queens event will be Romain Virgo.

“It will be a celebration of Romain’s new album release, The Gentle Man, and also the work that he has done over the years,” Miss Pat said. “We want to honor his accomplishments from his Rising Stars days up till now. He will be present to do a meet and greet, take photos with his fans and sign copies of the album. It promises to be a fun day and will shine a light on the sound system and vinyl culture, showing everyone that our music is alive and well, even with all the stages that we have passed through.”

Patricia ‘Miss Pat’ Chin. Photo courtesy of William Richards.

At an age when many of her peers are enjoying retirement and slowing down, Miss Pat asserted that none of that is on her agenda.

“I’m not retired,” she laughs. “I don’t think of myself as retired at all. I still have work to do and I still have my ears to the streets. I’ve been through it all- from mento, ska, to rocksteady, reggae, dancehall and dub and I’ve never lost track of the different trends in the music. My plan is to keep going and to keep preserving our musical legacy for as long as I can.”

Miss Pat and her late husband Vincent Chin together founded VP Records – the label name paying homage to their initials, V and P – in New York in 1979. They had immigrated to the USA from Jamaica having run a small record store, Randy’s Record Mart, and a recording studio, Studio 17, for some 20 years in downtown Kingston. From a tiny retail outlet on Jamaica Avenue in Queens, VP Records has grown to become the largest independent reggae label and distributor of Caribbean music in the world.

Miss Pat with husband and VP Records co-founder, the late Vincent Chin. Photo courtesy of Patricia Chin archives.

She believes that entrepreneurship was in her DNA, as she started her own business during childhood while growing up in Kingston as the eldest of three children born to her Chinese mother and Indian father. While at Alpha Girls School, she asked her father to buy her some rubber bands and marbles- popular novelty items amongst her schoolmates at the time- and, exhibiting her enterprising entrepreneurial spirit, she sold them at lunchtime.

“Looking back,” says Miss Pat today, “Maybe that’s how my business sense began to develop.”

That business sense would serve her well as she entered the predominantly male-dominated world of Jamaican popular music later on.

“Back then in Jamaica, I didn’t even realize I was doing a man’s job. I was just doing a job to survive and create a business. I didn’t feel like it was a man’s job. My biggest survival skill was that I respect people, and they respect me. It was strictly business. I wasn’t afraid to approach people, and I learned these skills from my parents, who taught us to look after the community.”

Arriving and then working in the United States, however, was another matter entirely.

“My role at VP for the first ten years was what we would now call telemarketing- handling orders by phone with my son Chris,” she recalled. “It was mostly men who would buy records in those days and when they called and heard my voice they  would ask, “Can you put on a man (on the phone) to take the order?” And I would reply, “Why do you need a man?” They thought I wasn’t well versed in the music or educated in it. But I had spent so much time in the music industry- including twenty years running the counter at Randy’s back in Jamaica- that I was more than familiar. But being a woman, I had to work harder. I didn’t go to the dances. I had to study.  I had to ask a lot of questions, because I had to retain a lot of information.”

Her perseverance was instrumental to the eventual success of VP Records, which proudly boasts a roster of present and past artists that includes many of the most popular reggae and dancehall stars of all time, including Beres Hammond, Shaggy, Beenie Man, Sean Paul, Spice, Lady Saw, Morgan Heritage, and Tanya Stephens. Many of them have become her close friends.

Having survived and thrived amidst those early professional challenges – as well as overcoming several personal tragedies, including the loss of her husband Vincent, two sons, and a grandson – Miss Pat continues to persevere, determined to make a difference.

Miss Pat with her children, from left- Angela, Chris and Randy. Photo courtesy of Patricia Chin archives.

“This is why I do not even think of myself as retiring,” she said, “Because there is so much more to do. I do a lot of work with the VP Foundation which we created to give back by assisting in the development of young musicians, artistes and the culture. Once a year, we go to Jamaica to support our various charities including  the Alpha Boys School.  I also find a way to share my story to inspire others by doing events and festivals.”

In 2006, the government of Jamaica awarded her the prestigious Order of Distinction (OD) in recognition of her contribution to Jamaican music and culture. In 2021, she published her memoirs, Miss Pat—My Reggae Music Journey, to great acclaim. The book chronicles her entire life, from early childhood in Kingston to becoming co-founder of her multi-Grammy Award-winning record label and international brand. She is also the first woman to have received the American Association of Independent Music Lifetime Achievement Award.

“I’d like to think that I serve as an example to anybody out there who had a dream and who continues to be inspired to keep busy at any age, as long as you are able. This is why our celebration of Romain Virgo this Saturday is so important to me. He is very talented and represents the future. And the VP legacy that I helped to build will live on in artists like him.  So I plan  to enjoy staying active and doing what I love, which is to support him and the next generation as they take our music forward.”

VP Records is located at 170 -19 Jamaica Avenue, Queens NY, 11432 and at 6022 SW 21st Street  in Miramar Florida, 33023.

Record Store Day is free and open to the public.