ENTITY · CONCEPT / TERM

Toasting

Well supported

The Jamaican sound-system practice of talking, chanting and rhyming over instrumental records through the microphone, developed by 1950s-60s selectors and deejays to hype the dance. It is the seed form from which the recorded deejay style, and later rap, grew.

No photograph yet — add one you hold the rights toOpenly licensed or your own work. We publish the credit and the licence beside it.

At a glance

Type: Concept / term →
Era: Sound-system revolution →
Confidence: Well supported
Sources: Lloyd Bradley, Bass Culture; David Katz, Solid Foundation; Norman Stolzoff, Wake the Town; Rough Guide to Reggae.

Share a memoryWrite it, say it, or send a photo.Correct this recordA date, a name, a spelling we got wrong.Add a source leadA flyer, tape, article or photograph.

Connections

Media & sources

Articles & sources

Open source ↗

The Originator: U-Roy transformed the deejay from a toaster to a star

WEB · rights discovery only · press source

Wax Poetics feature reference.

Source link ↗

In stories

Story · Well supportedFrom toasting to chatting: how the deejay took over

The Jamaican deejay grew from a hype-man behind the selector into the star of the record.

Story · Well supportedWriting - and toasting - the Jamaican language

How Patois travelled from playground stigma to page, pulpit and microphone.

Story · ProbableQuiet names of the toasting era

Behind U-Roy, Big Youth and Dennis Alcapone stood toasters whose records shaped the style but whose names rarely make the standard histories.

Debate & reception

What people argued about this record — two documented positions each time, kept apart from verified fact. Browse every argument in the archive →

Debate

Did Jamaican toasting father hip-hop?

One side

Toasting as a direct root of rap

The other

Hip-hop as a distinct African-American innovation

A long-running, documented debate stated neutrally: one view holds that Jamaican sound-system toasting, carried to the Bronx by Kingston-raised DJ Kool Herc, was a direct root of rap; another view stresses that hip-hop was a distinct African-American innovation with its own lineage in the block party, funk and the spoken-word tradition. Neutral framing; no verdict.

Read the argument →