Oswald Ossie Thomas began his apprenticeship in the music business at the age of fourteen and served his time as a record salesman for Bunny Striker Lee and Winston Niney The Observer Holness before moving on to Miss Sonia Pottingers Tip Top Records. Ossie began to produce records for himself and in 1979 Ossie and Phillip Morgan began the Black Solidarity label based deep in the Kingston ghetto on Delamere Avenue. Tony Chin gave Ossie a cut of a rhythm that he used for Triston Palmers A Class Girl the labels inaugural release. The record was a sizeable success and paved the way for hit after hit after hit on Black Solidarity.