BACK in the 1990s, Kashief Lindo was touted as an artiste to watch. Hit songs like First Cut and No Can Do proved he was more than hype, but his releases have slowed considerably in recent years.

Lindo’s latest song is Got No Experience, produced by his father Willie for their Heavybeat Records in Fort Lauderdale. It is stripped-down lovers’ rock, the sound that announced the singer over 20 years ago.

The diminutive Lindo is in his late 30s and a senior member of Heavybeat Records, which has released a number of anthems over the past 30 years, including Dennis Brown’s Inseparable, What One Dance Can Do by Beres Hammond, and I Wanna Wake Up With You by Boris Gardiner.

According to Lindo, although he is often cast a balladeer, he is not one-dimensional.

“I have never confined myself to just one aspect of reggae music. I have done many different styles but that’s (lovers’ rock) the style they’ve chosen to feature — not much I can do about it,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

Got No Experience, which hears the senior Lindo on guitar, was released in April. Some of Lindo’s recent releases include Love In A Vision, a cover of Gregory Isaacs’s Love Is Overdue, and the album, A Reggae Tribute To Michael Jackson.

He has also moved into production, working on albums and songs by rocksteady greats The Melodians and singer Sasha Dias. Those projects were released by Heavybeat Records.

Kashief Lindo’s career began during the mid-1990s, when roots reggae made a return to Jamaican radio and dance halls, thanks to artistes like Garnet Silk, Tony Rebel, and Everton Blender.

Songs such as First Cut and No Can Do did well for him in Jamaica even though he has lived in South Florida since he was a child. Those hits still resonate with audiences whenever he performs, which proves that making hit songs at this stage of his career is not that important.

“If it’s a choice, then I would pick [making] good music. But I would have thought that good music should hit the charts as well,” said Lindo.