Jamaican Chris Chin, the president of VP Records, received an award for outstanding achievement in music at the 16th annual Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business Awards Dinner Gala on June 20, 2017, in New York. The awards are given to recognize Asian American business owners, executives and professionals in the United States who have succeeded in business or distinguished themselves in their communities. Chin’s parents opened VP Records in Queens, New York, in 1979, when he was still a teenager. However, as he had grown up in his family’s record store in Kingston – Randy’s – he was already a veteran in the music industry. Now, as president of VP, which has been called the most successful independent label in contemporary music, Chin heads an all-reggae firm that distributed and marketed the biggest stars in the genre and helped to introduce dancehall into the mainstream of American music in the 1990s. Chin has transformed VP from its small beginnings into the powerhouse independent it is today. The company has helped to put artistes such as Sean Paul, Wayne Wonder, Beenie Man, Tanto Metro and Devonte and Gyptian on the Billboard charts. He has also expanded the company to include VPAL, a distribution outlet and publishing unit. Citing these exceptional achievements, Chin was awarded the Order of Distinction (Commander Class) by the Jamaican government. He will receive that honor on October 17, 2017, during the yearly National Honors and Awards ceremony at King’s House in St. Andrew, Jamaica.

Photo Source: VP Records