Entertainment : Remembering Philip Smart.....an engineer/producer, died Tuesday in Port Washington, New York, from pancreatic cancer. He was in his late 50s.....SHAGGY's songs such as Mampie, Big Up and his international breakthrough Oh Carolina, were recorded at HC&F.

BY HOWARD CAMPBELL Observer senior writer

Thursday, February 27, 2014 

ANYONE who moved in New York reggae circles for the last 30 years would be familiar with Philip Smart, the quiet, influential founder and head of HC&F Recording Studio in Long Island.

Smart, an engineer/producer, died Tuesday in Port Washington, New York, from pancreatic cancer. He was in his late 50s.

Philip Smart

His brother-in-law and business partner, Michael McDonald, told the Jamaica Observer that Smart was admitted to a hospice last week.

The prolific engineer/ producer worked with countless artistes at his HC&F Recording Studio in Long Island, most notably Shaggy, who recorded several of his hit songs there.

Some of the Grammy-winning toaster's early songs such as Mampie, Big Up and his international breakthrough Oh Carolina, were recorded at HC&F.

Musician Derrick Barnett of Sagitarius Band fame also did numerous sessions at the facility. He knew Smart since the early 1980s. "Philip was one of the nicest persons I knew in the music business. He was always willing to share his knowledge," Barnett told the Observer yesterday. more