U-Roy

Sound systems

Ewart Beckford was born in Jones Town, Kingston, in 1942. He began deejaying in 1961 on Dickie Wong's sound system and later worked for Sir George the Atomic, Sir Coxsone's Downbeat (running the number two set while King Stitt ran the main one) and King Tubby's Hometown Hi-Fi. At Tubby's, the engineer cut dubplates that dropped the vocal from rocksteady records, leaving space for U-Roy to toast live over the rhythm.

Duke Reid and the 1970 hits

His first singles were "Dynamic Fashion Way" for Keith Hudson and "Earth's Rightful Ruler" for Lee Perry in 1969. On John Holt's recommendation, producer Arthur "Duke" Reid had him toast over Treasure Isle rocksteady records, including The Paragons' "Wear You to the Ball" and "On the Beach." "Wake the Town," "Rule the Nation" and "Wear You to the Ball" held the top three places on both Jamaican charts at the same time in 1970. The success made the deejay record a commercial genre in Jamaica.

Virgin and Stur-Gav

U-Roy signed to Virgin in the mid 1970s. Dread in a Babylon (1975), produced by Tony Robinson, sold well in the UK and was followed by Natty Rebel (1976), Rasta Ambassador (1977) and Jah Son of Africa (1978). In 1978 he started his own sound system, Stur-Gav, where younger deejays including Ranking Joe and Josey Wales developed.

Toasting and hip hop

The line runs from Count Machuki and King Stitt on Coxsone's system to U-Roy, who put toasting on record. Clive Campbell, later DJ Kool Herc, grew up in Kingston around this sound-system culture before moving to the Bronx in 1967. When Herc began his parties there in the early 1970s, he used a large sound system and talked over the breaks, and he has credited Jamaican sound-system practice as part of hip hop's foundation. U-Roy received Jamaica's Order of Distinction in 2007 and died in Kingston on 17 February 2021, aged 78.