Sly Dunbar, one half of the titanic production duo Sly and Robbie, has died this morning at age 73. He battled health issues for years, but no cause of death has been revealed.

A famed reggae drummer, he teamed up with bassist Robbie Shakespeare to become the namesake that moved both of them far outside of merely the Jamaican music sphere.

They released their own music under the Sly and Robbie name, scoring their most critically and commercially successful album in 1987 with Rhythm Killers; anyone who's watched Hell's Kitchen has heard their version of Ohio Players' "Fire". The duo also produced No Doubt's inescapable 2001 hits "Hey Baby" and "Underneath It All".

But their pedigree goes much further back. As a co-producer, Dunbar worked on albums by almost every big name in Jamaican music: Jimmy Cliff, Black Uhuru, Toots Hibbert, The Mighty Diamonds, Bunny Wailer, Buju Banton, Maxi Priest, Ini Kamoze, Peter Tosh, Gregory Isaacs, Shabba Ranks, Matisyahu, and many more. Not to mention Mick Jagger, Grace Jones, and Sinead O'Connor, as well as remixes of the Fugees, Britney Spears, Madonna, and New Order. Dunbar's presence and rhythmic virtuosity was known and requested throughout the industry.

Dunbar took up drums as a teenager and was 18 when he first appeared on a record, 1970's "Double Barrel" by Dave and Ansel Collins, which topped the UK pop chart and made Top 40 here. His work with Shakespeare helped facilitate the switch to digital production in pop and anticipated the rise of dancehall altogether, producing Chaka Demus & Pliers' definitive hit "Murder She Wrote". Sly and Robbie's Friends won the Grammy for Best Reggae Album in 1989, and they also produced two American Hot 100 number-one hits, Maxi Priest's "Close to You" and OMI's "Cheerleader". Dunbar's musical partner Robbie Shakespeare died in 2021.