Everett Cooper

King Culture (b. Everett Cooper) was born and grew up in Kingston, Jamaica. Following the death of his father and the migration of his mother to Canada, Everett had to take care of himself. His first ventures in to music was as the owner and part time operator of the Sound System Emperor Lion in 1969. He was also working at a pressing plant in Kingston before he migrated to Toronto, Canada in 1976. Working at a pressing plant would later influence him in to launching King Culture Records. In 1979 King Culture launched King Culture Records and Videos a retail record/video outlet on Eglington Avenue. The store proved such a success that in 1981 he open yet another outlet to handle the growing demand. Due to slow economy and the economic recession of the time he had to scale back to solely one store again. The store would also house his studio. As a producer King Culture has released records by Jamaican artistes such as Rod Taylor, Barry Brown and Pad Anthony but focus has been on Canadian artists such as Howie Smart, Stamma Rank and The Uplifters. Often King Culture would group a Jamaican artist with a Canadian artist on the 7" singles released on his label. In 1982 Culture received an award for the dub album »King Culture In A Cultural Mood« by the 3rd Canadian Black Music Awards 1981. The same year he also received awards for Reggae Producer of the Year and being Top Reggae Distributor. He has since then won many awards for his productions, distribution of music/videos and merit awards for his support of Canadian Reggae.