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The sounds of the island — grouped by how they sound

931 playable recordings, interviews, documentaries and sound tapes from the archive, sorted into nine sonic groupings. Each grouping tells you what to listen for, so the difference between a ska chop and a one drop is something you can hear rather than something you have to take on trust.

SONIC GROUPINGS

Nine ways the island sounds.

Most groupings follow a period of sound — the tempo drop into rocksteady, the machine arriving in 1985. Clash and dubplate is the exception: it is a practice rather than a decade, so a record lands there for what it shows, not for when its artist worked. A recording can sit in more than one.

Deep background

Drum roots

Three Nyabinghi drums in conversation — the bass drum on the downbeat, the funde holding a steady heartbeat pulse, the repeater improvising across the top. Kumina and revival singing work the same way: a fixed pulse with a voice moving freely over it.

35 recordings

1940s–50s

Mento

An acoustic band with no drum kit: banjo, guitar, hand drum and a rhumba box — a big thumb piano the player sits on — plucking the bassline. The lilt leans on the last beat of the bar, which is why mento swings where calypso struts.

27 recordings

1950s–early 60s

Sound-system foundation

American R&B and shuffle boogie played through valve amplifiers and home-built bass bins. The thing to hear is not the song but the system: bass weight the record was never mastered for, and a selector talking over it.

17 recordings

1962–66

Ska

The chop on the offbeat — guitar and piano stabbing the up-strokes between the drums — at a pace close to a run. Horns carry the melody, jazz-schooled and loud, and the bass walks rather than repeats.

43 recordings

1966–79

Rocksteady, reggae and dub

The tempo drops and the bass steps forward as the lead instrument. Count to four: in a one drop there is nothing on beat one, and kick and snare land together on three. Then dub takes the same tape and removes most of it, leaving reverb where the singing was.

218 recordings

1979–90

Dancehall and the digital turn

One riddim under many different voices. After Sleng Teng in 1985 the backing is a machine rather than a band, so the timing is exact and the same instrumental can carry a love song, a boast and a warning in the same session.

187 recordings

1990s

Clash and dubplate

A familiar tune with the words changed — an artist singing a rival sound into the ground and calling your sound by name. These are specials, cut one at a time for one system, and the crowd noise is the scoring.

201 recordings

2000s

Street dance

Records built for a specific move, with the instruction in the lyric. The tempo and the gaps in the beat are shaped around what a body has to do on the floor.

108 recordings

2010s onward

Global and the living archive

Old riddims resurfacing — a Studio One bassline under a new voice, a revival singer reaching back past dancehall to roots. Listen for what is being quoted.

263 recordings

THE WHOLE SHELF

Everything playable, rights-aware.

931 recordings

Silver Hawk vs Jamrock — The Ultimate 1993 Soundclash, Hawk Side

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only

Duplicate upload of the June 1993 Jamrock clash, retained as a separate discovery source.

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Silver Hawk vs Stone Love — The Legendary Battle of 1992 Jamaica

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only

Community clash archive.

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Silver Hawk vs Super Dee — August Town, Jamaica, 2 January 1993 Sound Clash

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only

Community clash archive.

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Silver Hawk vs Super Dee — Grants Pen, Jamaica, 8 July 1991 Sound Clash

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only

Community clash archive.

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Stone Love vs Silver Hawk 1993 featuring Bugle Prophet

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only

Community clash archive featuring Bugle Prophet.

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Stone Love vs Silver Hawk at Priory, St Ann, 1992 — Silver Hawk Side

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only

Alternate upload from the 1992 Silver Hawk and Stone Love meeting.

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Veterans Cup Dub Fi Dub — Silver Hawk Sound vs Luv Injection, London, 26 July 2025

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only

Recent clash session featuring Silver Hawk and Richie Poo against Luv Injection.

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Killamanjaro vs Soul Supreme — Amazura, New York Sound Clash

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only

Second-round clash video supplied in the research summary; discovery-only embed pending rights review.

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Killamanjaro vs Soul Supreme — The Sound Clash Gets Serious

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only

First-round community clash video; uploading channel was not identified in the supplied research.

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Silver Hawk Sound Takes on Soul Imperial — Rare 1987 Jamaica Clash

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only

The supplied summary explicitly identifies this as Silver Hawk versus Soul Imperial, not Killamanjaro; discovery-only embed.

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Soul Supreme and Ma-Gash Face-Off at Albany Manor, Brooklyn

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only

Community sound-clash video supplied in the research summary; discovery-only embed pending rights review.

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Soul Supreme Replaces Jakes! — Will It Work?

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only

Discussion video about Soul Supreme replacing Jakes in a Killamanjaro clash context; discovery-only reference.

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Soul Supreme vs Killamanjaro — Total Annihilation Sound Clash, 18 May 2024

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only

New York clash video supplied in the research summary; discovery-only embed pending rights review.

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Richie Poo Breaks Down Silver Hawk's Legendary Clashes With Stone Love, Bass Odyssey & Jamrock

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only · interviews

Entertainment Report podcast interview with Richie Poo covering Silver Hawk's clash history; discovery-only embed pending rights review.

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Art of War — Exodus Nuclear

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only

Editor-supplied YouTube discovery lead associated with Exodus Nuclear. Upload title, channel, event, date, venue, participants and rights holder require editorial verification before stronger claims are made.

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Bass Odyssey vs Black Kat — sound-clash archive

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only

Editor-supplied YouTube discovery lead associated with Exodus Nuclear. Upload title, channel, event, date, venue, participants and rights holder require editorial verification before stronger claims are made.

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Dub Sesh: Exodus Nuclear

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only

Editor-supplied YouTube discovery lead associated with Exodus Nuclear. Upload title, channel, event, date, venue, participants and rights holder require editorial verification before stronger claims are made.

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Exodus Mash Up Black Kat

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only

Editor-supplied YouTube discovery lead associated with Exodus Nuclear. Upload title, channel, event, date, venue, participants and rights holder require editorial verification before stronger claims are made.

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Exodus Nuclear — Nedrick Dockery archive

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Editor-supplied YouTube discovery lead associated with Exodus Nuclear. Upload title, channel, event, date, venue, participants and rights holder require editorial verification before stronger claims are made.

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Exodus Nuclear 1992 — Fada Skeng dancehall cassette

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Exodus Nuclear 1992 — Judah Asante archive

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Editor-supplied YouTube discovery lead associated with Exodus Nuclear. Upload title, channel, event, date, venue, participants and rights holder require editorial verification before stronger claims are made.

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Exodus Nuclear 1994 featuring dubplates

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Editor-supplied YouTube discovery lead associated with Exodus Nuclear. Upload title, channel, event, date, venue, participants and rights holder require editorial verification before stronger claims are made.

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Exodus Nuclear 80s Dancehall Mix

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Exodus Nuclear archival recording — age-restricted video

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only

Editor-supplied YouTube discovery lead associated with Exodus Nuclear. Upload title, channel, event, date, venue, participants and rights holder require editorial verification before stronger claims are made.

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