Practice

Deejay / Toasting

1950s–60s sound-system practice · record breakthrough c. 1970Kingston dances → Jamaican records → diaspora
THE STORY

A voice riding the record: rhymes, boasts, jokes, warnings and crowd talk delivered live over the sound. Jamaican deejays turned the microphone into its own instrument long before rap records ruled radio.

GO DEEPER

Toasting grew inside Jamaican sound-system dances. Early microphone men such as Count Machuki and King Stitt talked over records, worked the crowd and developed rhythmic speech as part of the session. The practice lived in the dance before it became a major recorded form. Around 1970, U-Roy’s recordings for Duke Reid pushed the deejay voice into the Jamaican charts by placing his performance over existing Treasure Isle recordings and versions. Dennis Alcapone, Big Youth, I-Roy and others stretched the form in different directions. Kool Herc later carried Jamaican sound-system habits into his Bronx parties, one transmission line into early hip-hop, not a claim that hip-hop itself was born in Jamaica.

voice over riddimcrowd controlversion culturerhythmic speech

Where the history is argued

  • There is no clean single “first toaster”: live microphone practice developed before the best-documented recordings.
  • U-Roy’s 1970 success marks a recorded breakthrough, not the invention of the practice.

How they stand with the others

Came beforeThe live sound-system practice predates U-Roy’s breakthrough recordings.

Traveled with the soundKool Herc carried Jamaican party and sound-system experience into the Bronx, where hip-hop was built by a wider Black and Latino community.

Listen

Wake the Town U-Roy · 1970 YouTube
Version Galore U-Roy · 1971 YouTube
Screaming Target Big Youth · 1972 YouTube
Cambridge · A History of Sound System and Emcee CultureNational Library of Jamaica · Duke Reid

People

Count MachukiKing StittU-RoyDennis AlcaponeBig YouthI-RoyKool Herc

Connected

Sound-System CultureCame before · the dance where the voice learned to ride DancehallShared the riddim · the deejay moves to center stage Hip-HopTraveled with the sound · Herc carries practices to the Bronx Reggaeversions and riddims under the voice U-Roy Big Youth

Sources

Cambridge University Press · A History of Sound System and Emcee Culture cambridge.orgScholarship tracing Jamaican sound systems, Count Machuki, U-Roy and wider MC culture.
National Library of Jamaica · Duke Reid nlj.gov.jmJamaican national-library account connecting Duke Reid and U-Roy.

Last checked 1 September 2026

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