Sound Systems pioneered the evolution of the Jamaican music industry. In pre-independent Jamaica, ‘dance-goers’ craved for Calypso, Meringue, and American R&B and Jazz imports especially.

Once the American music industry began to shift its focus from these genres to Rock & Roll, R&B and Jazz, records became scarce in the marketplace. Jamaican sound systems responded to this by recording local imitations of these imports by local singers and bands to be played in dances.

In the 1950s, Winston ‘Count Machuki’ Cooper was the first sound system selector to speak on the sound system’s microphone. He was a sound system selector for Clement Dodd’s sound system called Sir Coxsone Downbeat.

Count Machuki verbalised phrases and wisecracks wittingly over the parts of songs he deemed to be uninteresting, much to the patrons’ delight. His act of ‘toasting’ became a staple performance for sound system selectors islandwide.

As the popularity of toasting increased, record producers Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Osbourne ‘King Tubby’ Ruddock and Errol ‘Errol T’ Thompson began to manipulate recordings and remove audio portions to provide more talking time for selectors over the instrumentation. This was called ‘dub.’

Winston ‘King Stitt’ Sparks and Ewart ‘U-Roy’ Beckford, were two respective sound system selectors also for Sir Coxsone Downbeat, and were the first to transition Count Macuki’s toasting to the recording studio.

In the recording studio, both King Stitt and U-Roy recorded their toasting over dubs, which in turn were sold as ‘dub versions’ in record shops. The pioneering work of King Stitt and U-Roy’s recordings would overtime become classified as a genre of its own called dancehall, from the large hall space that people would gather to dance and hear sound system selectors perform dubs. Classic recordings by King Stitt include Fire Nation and I for I, while U-Roy’s catologue includes Rule The Nation and Wake The Town.

In the 1970s another sound system selector known as Dj Kool Herc, migrated from Jamaica to Bronx, New York and introduced toasting to the United States of America. Soon after Dj Kool Herc’s introduction, American disc jockeys followed suit and began to toast also.

Eventually American toasting would also gain a genre classification and it was called HipHhop. Dj Kool Herc is regarded as the originator of Hip-Hop and rap music.