PRACTICE

DEEJAY / TOASTING

late 1950s practice · on record 1970Sound-system dances
THE STORY

Talking, chanting and rhyming over records — born at the dance, years before anyone sold it as a style.

GO DEEPER

Toasting — talking, chanting, rhyming over records — is a practice, not a genre. Born with the sound systems, perfected at the dance, put on record by U-Roy in 1970. It became dancehall’s deejay voice, and it traveled: with Kool Herc’s 1973 Bronx parties the practice entered hip-hop’s founding moment. That is transmission along sound-system routes — hip-hop was built by Bronx Black and Latino youth, not “descended from reggae”.

HOW THEY STAND
CAME BEFOREGrew inside sound-system culture from the late 1950s.
TRAVELED WITH THE SOUNDHerc carries the practice to the Bronx, 1973.
SHARED THE RIDDIMBecomes dancehall’s central instrument.
voice as riddim instrumentcall the dance · big up the crewpractice → profession
LISTEN
Wake the TownU-Roy · 1970
S.90 SkankBig Youth · 1972
MEET
Count MachukiKing StittU-RoyBig YouthDennis Alcapone
EXPLORE
SOUND-SYSTEM CULTURECAME BEFORE · born at the danceHIP-HOPTRAVELED WITH THE SOUND · practice travelsDANCEHALLSHARED THE RIDDIM · deejay era

Find DEEJAY / TOASTING among the roots

See how they stand with the music around them.

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Hear this era in the Riddim Deck →

Updated 2026-09Ranges kept honest · contested dates marked “c.”