Hopeton Lindo has envisioned a busy year, with the ballad Heart to Heart kicking off his 2022 campaign.

Released in December, the lovers rock single is part of a compilation album of the same title produced by Courtney “Blemo” Crichton, who died in January.

“For 2022, I’m focusing on completing and releasing my album and other projects,” Lindo said, adding that Heart to Heart was a fulfilling project for several reasons.

“I enjoy recording on all kinds of riddims. For me, it depends on the vibes the beat brings, whether lovers rock or culture.

“I knew Blemo for over 20 years, he was a good producer and a good friend,” he stated.

Some of the songs he has in the pipeline were done with Sly and Robbie and Rorey Baker of One Pop Productions.

Some of the chart success Lindo has enjoyed in New York and South Florida in the past two years are with Sly and Robbie and Baker. His friendship with Robbie (Shakespeare), who died in December, was special.

“I met Robbie many years ago and when he migrated to Florida we became closer friends. He was my bona fide friend and a great musician. He was the kind of friend who would advise on life, not just music,” he said.

“Working with him in the studio he would always give me more than one bass lines for each song and sometimes advice on melody; I would always ask for his recommendations. He was one of the finest bass players in the world, an icon who was very humble.”

Hopeton Lindo is a product of the 1980s sound system movement. Late that decade, he scored with Territory, a song that transcended dancehall status by becoming the Reggae Boyz’ unofficial home song for their successful campaign to the 1998 World Cup in France.

During that period, he was part of the vaunted songwriting team at producer Gussie Clarke’s Anchor studio in Kingston. Lindo co-wrote some of that camp’s biggest songs including Telephone Love by JC Lodge and Champion Lover by Deborahe Glasgow.