Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley is among those pay­ing trib­ute to Leroy 'The Black Stal­in' Cal­liste who died at his San Fer­nan­do home this morn­ing.

Dr Row­ley de­scribed Stal­in as "a mas­ter" and said that his "rich lega­cy of po­et­ic ca­lyp­so lyrics" will live on.

The fol­low­ing are some im­me­di­ate re­spons­es to Stal­in's death.

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley:

It was the Mighty Duke who very apt­ly said that “By ca­lyp­so our sto­ries are told”. Very few bards told our sto­ries more ef­fec­tive­ly than the Black Stal­in. He was a mas­ter. His pass­ing leaves us poor­er but his rich lega­cy of po­et­ic ca­lyp­so lyrics and haunt­ing mu­si­cal lines will all live on for our guid­ance and in his en­dur­ing mem­o­ry. May we al­ways re­mem­ber his con­tri­bu­tion."

Hol­lis 'Chalk­dust' Liv­er­pool:

Hol­lis Liv­er­pool bet­ter known as Chalk­dust sang "The day Black Stal­in stop singing this blessed art­form will be suf­fer­ing" when asked to com­ment on the death of Black Stal­in. Dur­ing an in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia the Ca­lyp­so vet­er­an re­called, "He taught ca­lyp­so­ni­ans a lot, he used to at­tend all au­di­tions and he will pull you aside and say change that line, re­move that line add this word. He nev­er missed a ca­lyp­so show he at­tend­ed and he would pull you aside and say son you good but that third verse out of the flow."

David Rud­der:

Ca­lyp­so icon David Rud­der said he had not yet processed the news of Stal­in's pass­ing. "When­ev­er I'm in Trinidad we would spend time to­geth­er rem­i­nisc­ing about our times, we had some great bat­tles in the ca­lyp­so world. He was a man who kept his ear on the ground, he was a part of the ca­lyp­so life and that is why the peo­ple loved him so be­ca­sue he voiced their feel­ings, he was a fight­er and a war­rior he was a man with lots of love for the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Austin 'Su­perblue' Lyons:

An­oth­er Great Icon has gone and leave us. Wow this morn­ing I woke up with very sad news my good friend the Black Stal­in as pass away. This man was a king he sing and per­formed and al­ways did is best. Is just mem­o­ries I have with you now with all the great times we have share to­geth­er. Rest In Peace King. Fly with the an­gels.

Ron­nie McIn­tosh:

In my ear­ly days of be­ing in­volved in the mu­sic in­dus­try, I ba­si­cal­ly start­ed at the age of sev­en play­ing per­cus­sions, main­ly con­gas in the ca­lyp­so tents.

So one of them times I think I would have been with Mas­ters' Den...Stal­in was re­spon­si­ble for me. He used to pro­vide a case...an emp­ty beer case for me to stand on be­cause the pair of con­gas was on a stand be­cause it was too tall for me then. So every night they would move the case so every night he would get a case for me to be at a com­fort­able height to play the con­gas. Stal­in, yes, I was re­al close to him as a youth grow­ing up.

Jules So­bion - Ceasar's Army boss:

Rest In Peace Ras­ta. Leroy Cal­liste aka The Black Stal­in. I know that my fa­ther will per­son­al­ly look for you as you walk through the gates of heav­en. One of our great­est cul­tur­al icons and a true son of our Trinidad & To­ba­go soil. Let the fire burn high Ras­ta.

Bun­ji Gar­lin:

"Rest in Peace Icon. Dr Leroy Cal­liste The Black Stal­in. Con­do­lences to his fam­i­ly and loved ones. May your art con­tin­ue one to ex­ist for gen­er­a­tions to come and your de­sire to up­lift."

Keeping company with former National Calypso Monarch Black Stalin, centre, and his wife Patsy, are Port-of-Spain Mayor Joel Martinez, left, and San Fernando Mayor Junia Regrello in May 2019.

Tony Howell

Kelvon Mor­ris, THA Mi­nor­i­ty Leader:

It is of­ten said that the best of a man is cel­e­brat­ed on­ly at the time of his pass­ing, how­ev­er it is safe to say that the best of Leroy Cal­liste, af­fec­tion­ate­ly known as the Black Stal­in will live on through his many hits and mem­o­rable mu­sic we all came to love, ap­pre­ci­ate and en­joy across gen­er­a­tions. In the words of William Shake­speare, "if mu­sic be the food of love, play on" and so shall the songs of this late great mas­ter of the ca­lyp­so art­form. My sin­cer­est con­do­lences are ex­tend­ed to his fam­i­ly, friends and all who mourns the pass­ing of this great ca­lyp­so leg­end. May his soul RIP.

Fay Ann Lyons:

Walk in glo­ry. Fly high. To the fam­i­ly of the Black Stal­in, con­do­lences. May you be grant­ed strength and peace in this time. An­oth­er icon has left us with his amaz­ing mu­sic and mem­o­ries.

Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Fitzger­ald Hinds:

Some truth in life is hard to ac­cept. Your mem­o­ries will nev­er be for­got­ten. Rest in eter­nal peace Dr. Leroy "Black Stal­in" Cal­liste. Deep­est con­do­lences to his wife, chil­dren , fam­i­ly and friends.

Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Nyan Gads­by Dol­ly:

In 2016, as Min­is­ter of Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment, Cul­ture and the Arts, I had the priv­i­lege of vis­it­ing with the Black Stal­in at his home, along with mem­bers of his fam­i­ly and Bri­an Lon­don. It was a love­ly af­ter­noon, and I trea­sure it. RIP Black Stal­in; your lega­cy will live on.

Rik­ki Jai:

My heart­felt con­do­lences go out to the fam­i­ly of Dr. Leroy Cal­iste “ The Black Stal­in”. I have had the priv­i­lege to learn from his wealth of knowl­edge and to share the stage with him and al­so to col­lab­o­rate in song with him !!! His per­sona was over­whelm­ing on stage and off stage and that win­ning smile was his sig­na­ture wher­ev­er he went !! God bless his fam­i­ly dur­ing this time of be­reave­ment and May he rest in peace !! The Black­man will for­ev­er be in my mem­o­ry and the hearts of count­less fans world­wide !!!

Farmer Nap­py:

Rest in Peace Leg­end! An Icon and a Men­tor. I will al­ways cher­ish our last con­ver­sa­tion and be­ing to­geth­er in this pan trib­ute/cov­er of Back­yard Jam by the Pan El­ders Youth Band. Farewell to an Icon Dr Leroy Cal­liste, The Black Stal­in, we will car­ry on your Name. Mu­sic & Lega­cy.

Sekon Sta:

RIP to a Leg­end Dr Leroy Cal­liste " Black Stal­in", 5 time win­ner of Trinidad Na­tion­al Ca­lyp­so Monarch. In his fa­mous words

"We could make it if we try just a lit­tle hard­er. If we just give one more try, life will be much sweet­er"

Kurt Allen:

King Black Stal­in. Jah Know.

Shur­wayne Win­ches­ter:

The Orig­i­nal Iron Man . An Icon of his­to­ry , Roots so strong al­ways em­bark­ing to ed­u­cate and up­lift the Black man. Your lessons and love spawned roots . The fruits com­ing will make you im­mor­tal. Thank you Black Stal­in . Now rest well . Con­do­lences to your fam­i­ly friends and your fel­low icons . Cul­ture has been hit hard as a mas­sive cul­tur­al oak tree has fall­en.

Calypso legend Black Stalin (Leroy Calliste) flanked by Village Drums of Freedom founder Gerald “Drums” Achee, right and VDOF associate Nyron Greenidge in April 2019

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Min­is­ter of Agri­cul­ture Kaz­im Ho­sein:

It is with deep sad­ness that I ex­tend sin­cer­est con­do­lences to the fam­i­ly, friends and the Ca­lyp­so fra­ter­ni­ty on the pass­ing of Dr. Leroy Cal­liste, fond­ly known as Black Stal­in. Born and raised in the city of San Fer­nan­do, Black Stal­in was a cul­tur­al icon who con­tributed im­mea­sur­ably to the ca­lyp­so and car­ni­val art forms. He was known for his po­lit­i­cal com­men­tary, win­ning the Ca­lyp­so Monarch com­pe­ti­tion on five oc­ca­sions and the Ca­lyp­so King of the Word ti­tle back in 1999. Black Stal­in was al­so award­ed the Hum­ming­bird Medal (Sil­ver) for his con­tri­bu­tion to Trinidad and To­ba­go cul­ture. Stal­in has en­ter­tained us for over 60 years, giv­ing us hits such as “Black Man Feel­ing to Par­ty”, “We Can Make It” and “Bun Dem”. May Almighty God grant his loved ones strength and com­fort dur­ing this dif­fi­cult time.

So­ca artiste Jaiga:

Rest in love Dr Cal­liste…Black Stal­in we will keep it burn­ing.

Aaron Dun­can:

It sad­dens my heart to know that we lost an­oth­er leg­end this morn­ing. The icon­ic Black Stal­in. Stal­in con­tributed a lot to the ca­lyp­so and so­ca art­form that we know to­day. His mu­sic will for­ev­er live on, now it’s time for him to par­ty with the an­gles. RIP to the leg­endary, Black Stal­in.

Min­is­ter of Plan­ning and De­vel­op­ment, Pen­ne­lope Beck­les:

To­day, I join Trinidad and To­ba­go and the World by ex­ten­sion as we cel­e­brate the life of Leroy Cal­iste, The Black Stal­in Ca­lyp­so King of the World 1999. Last year, I had the priv­i­lege to vis­it Stal­in and his Wife as we rem­i­nisced the good old days, re­mem­ber­ing the many mem­o­ries of the Ca­lyp­so tents and the mo­ments when he won the crown.

He was a very good friend to me and I en­joyed every mo­ment we shared.

Dr Roodal Mooni­lal:

The sad pass­ing of ca­lyp­so icon Black Stal­in has robbed the Caribbean of a cham­pi­on artiste and a con­sis­tent spokesman for the op­pressed across the globe. He was a proud south­ern­er and a friend of all who as­pired to change our beloved twin is­land na­tion. For a gen­er­a­tion, Stal­in en­ter­tained us with en­rich­ing ca­lyp­soes that al­so ad­vo­cat­ed the cause of the work­ing class and down­trod­den and pro­mot­ed eth­nic uni­ty and sol­i­dar­i­ty. From the start of his ca­reer in the 1960s, Stal­in was so­cial­ly con­scious, singing about the ills in so­ci­ety, hold­ing the au­thor­i­ties to ac­count, and pre­scrib­ing so­lu­tions. He was un­wa­ver­ing in his ap­peals for a bet­ter qual­i­ty of life for the ex­ploit­ed and per­se­cut­ed and he cease­less­ly de­mand­ed bet­ter ad­min­is­tra­tion and greater so­cial and eco­nom­ic eq­ui­ty. He re­mind­ed so­ci­ety that “suf­fer­ers” had no time for trib­al dif­fer­ences but were con­cerned with feed­ing their re­spec­tive fam­i­lies. Black Stal­in was a unique Caribbean voice, an artis­tic vi­sion­ary who had the courage of his con­vic­tion and was con­fi­dent and fear­less. He was a role mod­el for per­form­ers in his art form. May he rest in peace.

Dru­patee Ra­goon­ai:

Con­do­lences to the fam­i­ly of the late Leroy Cal­liste 'The Black Stal­in' on his pass­ing.

Nailah Black­man:

R.I.P to Ca­lyp­so Leg­end Leroy Cal­liste bet­ter known as Black Stal­in, past mu­ti­ple win­ner of the Ca­lyp­so monarch.

Trinidad & To­ba­go has lost an­oth­er great one. South has pro­duced so many tal­ent­ed artists and to­day we will re­mem­ber

you for your amaz­ing work that you have con­tributed through­out your amaz­ing ca­reer. You will be missed.