Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad Bisses­sar says the pass­ing of Broth­er Re­sis­tance was met with great sad­ness. In a press re­lease is­sued to­day, she called him warm, hum­ble and kind. The fol­low­ing is a press re­lease from the Op­po­si­tion Leader:

I was met with great sad­ness when I learned of the pass­ing of cul­tur­al icon Lu­ta­lo Masim­ba (Roy Lewis), bet­ter known as Broth­er Re­sis­tance.

I came to know Broth­er Re­sis­tance over the years and par­tic­u­lar­ly dur­ing my term as Prime Min­is­ter. He was a warm, hum­ble and kind per­son.

Broth­er Re­sis­tance was a true artist and in­no­va­tor, pi­o­neer­ing the emer­gence of Rap­so mu­sic in the 1970s.

Among his many hits, one, in par­tic­u­lar, stands out as a re­al mas­ter­piece – “Moth­er Earth”. Ini­tial­ly cho­sen as the theme song for World En­vi­ron­ment Day in the Caribbean, “Moth­er Earth” quick­ly be­came the an­them for en­vi­ron­men­tal­ists across the re­gion.

In his song “Cyar Take That” a lamen­ta­tion as to the in­equal­i­ties in so­ci­ety he warns those in au­thor­i­ty, “Life un­der pover­ty, is end­less agony”. His was a life that stood true to his so­bri­quet: a man for the mass­es, a Broth­er, who will stand and re­sist op­pres­sion.

Broth­er Re­sis­tance rep­re­sent­ed the very best of Trinidad and To­ba­go. His ge­nius will live on through his mu­sic which will con­tin­ue to in­spire gen­er­a­tions to come.

Even as our coun­try mourns the loss of this great tal­ent, we cel­e­brate his lega­cy. I of­fer my sin­cere con­do­lences to his friends, col­leagues, fel­low artists, and fam­i­ly at this time.

As Broth­er Re­sis­tance would say “Rap­so artists don’t die-they mul­ti­ply.”