Voice of Jamaica - The Deejays Meet Down Twon 1975 -1980

The late '60s and early '70s spectacle of Jamaican deejays taking their live performances out of the dance halls and translating them into hit records, not only marked the beginning of 40 years of dancehall-driven music on the island but also provided the original inspiration and template for the global dominance of rap and hip-hop.

The art of deejay was now rightly recognized and the toasters or talk-over artists advanced from introductions and interjections to stringing complete sets of lyrics together and riding the rhythm for the entire length of the song.

Deejays including U Roy, I Roy,Dennis Alcapone, Big Joe, Little Joe and Prince Jazzbo, who built their reputations working live on sound systems, now went one step beyond and moved on to become recording deejays with entire catalogs of hit singles and albums to their credit.

Throughout the '70s a whole host of mic men followed in their wake, including Dillinger, Dr. Alimando, Clint Eastwood and Jah Stitch. Talking records were not new, but "talk-over" records were. The repercussions of this uniquely Jamaican phenomenon would go on to reverberate worldwide.