Iconoclast officially acquires select intellectual property rights from “culturally significant reggae artists,” beginning with the work of Half Pint.

The buyer recently announced the deal, which was made through a partnership with Ujama Designs, a company founded by Robert Oyugi that operates in publishing, recording, live performance and other areas of various genres, including reggae.

Now Ujama Designs, the Ujama News subsidiary that produces the Soul Rebel Festival in Boulder, says it is ready to use that experience to connect Iconoclast with the aforementioned “culturally significant” works.

First up is the intellectual property (specifically the publishing and NIL rights) of the “legendary” Half Pint (real name Lindon Andrew Roberts). The Kingston-born singer’s works include “Greetings”, “Crazy Girl”, “Mr. Landlord”, “Substitute Lover” and “Winsome”, to name a few.

Iconoclast declined to disclose the cost of the agreement in its press release, and when contacted by DMN, founder Olivier Chastan made clear his broader plans to help reggae find new fans on the world stage.

“Working with Robert allows me to rekindle my long history and passion for reggae music that began 20 years ago when I worked at VP Records and acquired Greensleeves Publishing,” said Chastan, whose company purchased Tony Bennett’s catalog and NIL rights last March.

“Thanks to our partnership with Robert Oyugi and my personal experience,” continued the founder of Iconic Artists Group, “we hope to continue to grow the genre and help reggae artists in and outside of Jamaica reach a wider audience. I couldn’t ask for a better start than working with Half Pint!”

Half Pint, 62, who was due to perform at the Sierra Nevada World Music Festival in June until the reggae event was shelved “due to extreme financial problems,” declined to comment. But Oyugi praised the connection between Iconoclast and his own company as “a perfect match for success.”

Iconoclast’s purchase of Half Pint IP is the second catalog deal to this point in August (the other being Reach Music Publishing’s offer for a portion of Wyatt Durrette’s work). Overall, however, IP transactions have been comparatively rare in recent months, given an uncertain economy, the end of the Hipgnosis saga, and other factors.

As DMN Pro’s Music IP Acquisition Tracker observes, only eight catalog sales have been completed between the beginning of May and today. Last year, May alone came close to that number (including a deal with Iconoclast and Major Lazer founder Dave Taylor), and over 30 deals were completed in total.

Despite the significant decline in volume, there appears to be continued interest and enormous sums of money for particularly high-profile intellectual property, including the works of Michael Jackson, Queen and Calvin Harris.