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Chris Blackwell has one of the most storied careers in the music business. As the founder of the Island Records label, Blackwell helped discover and launch the careers of such British rock icons as Stevie Winwood, Cat Stevens, Roxy Music, Nick Drake and U2. His adventerous ears and shrewd pop acumen made him a legend—the fictionalized subject of the 2000 novel A&R, and real life inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001. But Blackwell, who was born and raised in Jamaica, made his biggest mark bringing reggae music to the world in the 1970s—and instigating the world music boom of the 1980s.

Blackwell founded Island in 1961 to import Jamaican records into the UK, and by the '70s the label was regularly promoting Jamaican artists alongside their popular rock acts. In 1973, Island produced the soundtrack to the seminal Jamaican film The Harder They Come—putting reggae on the radar screen of British and American audiences for the first time, and launching the international careers of reggae greats Jimmy Cliff and Toots Hibbert. That same year, Blackwell also took a chance on an intense young man named Bob Marley. Marley's collaboration with Island was legendary, and the label sucessfully branded him "the first Third World superstar"—bringing out full-length LPs (unheard of in the Jamaican market) and generally marketing Marley as a rockstar. Island would support many more influential reggae acts over the years, from Burning Spear to Steel Pulse.

In the early '80s, Blackwell took things one step further, founding the Mango label to disseminate reggae and other "tropical" music. Mango anticipated the world music boom by introducing such artists as Nigeria's King Sunny Ade and Senegal's Baaba Maal to Western audiences. When Blackwell sold his recording Empire to Polygram in 1989, it didn't take him long to found his latest label, Palm Pictures, which continues to explore the world music space with such innovative artists and multimedia ventures as Gigi, Sidestepper and the One Giant Leap project.

National Geographic World Music recently caught up with Blackwell at his home in Jamaica, the luxe resort Goldeneye—former home of James Bond creator Ian Fleming and current crown jewel in Blackwell's boutique hotel empire. The relaxed and reflective entreprenuer shared some of his favorite world music tracks with us—as well as some of the lessons he's learned in over 40 years in the music business.

Baaba Maal: "Baaba is not only one of the great musicians from Senegal, but I believe that he's becoming one of the foremost artists and spokesmen from Africa. He's an incredibly conscious individual, and very aware of and involved in world affairs."

One Giant Leap: "This particular track represents the cross-cultural elements which, to me, were the most exciting parts of the One Giant Leap Project."

Tinariwen: "Listening to them is like trying to solve a puzzle: 'Did the blues come from there (Mali), or were they influenced by the blues?'"

Gigi: "I believe very much in the evolution of world music, of growing it and mixing it with other forms, especially jazz. I think it's good for both genres. Although I hate the word fusion. I think this track points to that evolution, it pushes the music in a more futuristic direction. And I think (producer) Bill Laswell helps bring that all together."

Ernest Ranglin: "This follows up on the idea of something we did in Senegal. This captures that laid-back, West African vibe quite nicely."

Nortec Collective: "This is so incredibly inventive, and rhythmically very exciting to me. I played this nonstop while I was down in Brazil."

Sidestepper: "Really innovative and smart. Alot of acts try to combine techo and breakbeats with traditional music and it rarely succeeds. But I think Richard (Blair) gets the mix right."

Salif Keita: "He's just pure, spine-tingling magic. The emotion in his voice is so pure. This is fom the first record we released of Salif's, and this is just a central track for anyone with any interest in world music."