Former Prime Minister PJ Patterson has hailed Jamaican music legend Jimmy Cliff as a creative genius who, through his craft, strove to motivate and empower his fellow human beings.

Cliff, real name James Chambers, died Monday morning. He was 81.

Patterson, who like Cliff attended Somerton Elementary School in St James, though at different times, shared a very close relationship with the singer and actor whose discography spans several genres of Jamaican music from ska to rocksteady to reggae.

“An iconic pioneer. The creative genius of this legend ensures the immortality of one who sought to inspire and uplift,” Patterson said in his initial tribute to Cliff who was vested with the Order of Merit (OM), Jamaica’s third highest national honour on August 6, 2003.

At that time Patterson was serving his third successive tenure as prime minister.

The OM is outranked on the list of national honours by the Order of National Hero and the Order of the Nation, which is reserved for governors general and prime ministers, as well as the Order of Excellence, which is ranked equally with the Order of the Nation and may be awarded to foreign heads of state or government.

Although Cliff made his name in Jamaican entertainment in the 1960s, it was his lead role in the 1972 Jamaican film, The Harder They Come, that further catapulted his career. The film has become a cult classic and is regarded as a cornerstone of Jamaica’s movie industry.

Over his decades in music Cliff has recorded at least 11 albums.

They are: Hard Road in 1967, Give Thanks, 1969, Jimmy Cliff, 1969, Wonderful World, Beautiful People, 1970, Another Cycle, 1971, The Harder They Come, 1972, Struggling Man, 1973, Music Maker, 1974, Brave Warrior, 1975, Pop Chronik, Vol. 9, 1975 and Follow My Mind, 1976.