A COLLEAGUE of slain music producer Patrick ‘Roach’ Samuels has hailed him as a street-smart player who paid his dues before getting the big break.

“He was a man of the streets who wasn’t afraid to go to anyone with his productions. He was known by almost every selector and disc jock, from Kingston to Montego Bay,” said producer Rohan ‘Jah Snowcone’ Fuller.

Police say the 46-year-old Samuels was shot multiple times at 4:30 am Sunday as he spoke on his cell phone, after leaving a party at Manning’s Hill Road in St Andrew.

Fuller says he first met Samuels in 2004 and observed he had an uncanny talent.

“I met him when he was (Vybz) Kartel’s ‘roadie’ and he was the ultimate road manager. He could tell which of Kartel’s song would be a hit,” he said.

Fuller added that Samuels rose quickly from road manager to producer.

“He tried almost every career in the industry which includes deejaying. The industry has watched him grow from being Vybz Kartel road manager to his first project, the Siren ‘riddim’.” Two songs on the Siren, Sean Paul’s Break Out (from the multi-platinum The Trinity album) and Vybz Kartel’s Emergency, were hits.

Samuels’ most notable production was the Overproof beat, (a collaboration with Justus Arison) which produced hit singles in Mavado’s Settle Down and Khago’s Tun Up Di Ting.