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ENTITY · DRINK / BRAND

Heineken in Jamaica

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Brewed locally by Desnoes & Geddes long before the Dutch company owned it. Heineken's Jamaican story is the ownership story: in October 2015 it bought Diageo's 57.9% stake in D&G for US$781m, adding to the 15.5% it already held and taking control of Red Stripe with 73.3% of the company.

That matters to this archive for one reason. The brands stamped on Jamaican stages, bottles and sound clashes are now largely owned outside Jamaica, and the money that sponsors the music answers to Amsterdam and Milan. It is not a scandal; it is the shape of the business, and it is worth stating plainly rather than leaving in the small print.

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Story · Well supportedThe bar in the dance: how liquor built, named and paid for the music

A brewery, a rum house and a tonic wine have shaped Jamaican music as surely as any studio — and what the dance drinks has changed twice, from a crate at a man's foot to bottles held up in the video light.

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Compiled and researched by The Jamaica Music Atlas music desk. The sources that informed it are credited above.

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