Selectors: the voice on the mic

Ricky Trooper is a Jamaican selector and mic-man regarded as a living legend of sound clash. He rose to fame as selector for Killamanjaro during the 1990s dubplate era, taking the seat from Jeremy Lee and leading the sound on a clash 'killing spree', then left at the end of the decade to found his own Sound Trooper, which won World Clash in 2006. Beyond the selector's seat, the archive's editor records that he also worked as an engineer at the Killamanjaro studio and cut dubplates there for Jaro and for many other sounds — a role no published source describes, and one recorded here as contributed recollection rather than documented fact. Sources give his birth name as Garfield McKoy, but they do not agree on it; the name is contested and is flagged for editorial decision.

Killamanjaro is a Jamaican sound system owned by Noel "Papa Jaro" Harper, founded in 1969 and named after Mount Kilimanjaro. It was a dominant force in both the 1980s live-deejay era, launching artists such as Super Cat, Early B, Josey Wales and Ninjaman, and the 1990s dubplate clash era behind selector Ricky Trooper.

Rory Gilligan, known as Rory Stone Love, is a Jamaican selector born 22 November 1962 in South London to Jamaican parents. He joined the Stone Love Movement as a selector in 1982 while still a student at Calabar High School, one of just three people — alongside Wee Pow and Cancer — who made up Stone Love through the 1980s, and reshaped its dancehall profile through advanced juggling, beat-matching and heavy use of exclusive dubplates. Widely cited as a definitive modern selector, he later built the Black Dub production imprint, working with Bounty Killer, Jigsy King and Capleton, and was credited on DJ Khaled's "You Remind Me" in 2025.

Danny Dread, nicknamed 'The Teacher,' is a Kingston-born selector whose roughly fifty-year career runs from the 1970s King Attorney/Socialist Roots sound through Volcano, King Jammy's and King Stur Gav to, more recently, New York's King Addies. Jamaican press has credited him with coaching a young Dennis Brown through an early dubplate session.

Winston "Wee Pow" Powell built Stone Love Movement in 1972 in Kingston using locally-built amplifiers. Stone Love became Jamaica's most consistently dominant sound system through a "juggling" style - beat-matched selecting, radio-style patter and exclusive dubplates rather than live artist performance - and helped launch or feature dubplates from Buju Banton, Wayne Wonder, Johnny Osbourne, Shabba Ranks, Sanchez and Beenie Man. He also started a second sound, Purple Love, in 2003, focused on vintage Jamaican music, and is credited alongside Elephant Man with conceiving Weddy Weddy Wednesdays. In January 2025 he publicly said veteran selector Billy Slaughter — 33 years with Stone Love by then — was "no longer on the roster," citing unspecified "inappropriate practices" and adding "he wanted to be the leader, my son is my son, Billy Slaughter is not my son." Slaughter disputed the characterisation and hinted at legal action; no source found confirms how the dispute was resolved.

Patcheye succeeded Ainsley Grey as Killamanjaro's chief selector in 1985, continuing the sound's run through dancehall's live-artist era before the sound's later dubplate-era selectors took over.

King Addies is a Brooklyn-based Jamaican sound system founded in 1988, its reputation built across generations through international clashes and a deep dubplate catalogue. Selectors associated with its history include Tony Matterhorn and Danny Dread, and its continuing catalogue presence includes a Buju Banton mix issued through Apple Music.

Bass Odyssey's celebrated selector, whose reading of a dance made the St Ann sound a national and then international force in the 1990s and 2000s clash era. His early death in 2009 was mourned across the sound-system world.

Ainsley Grey was Killamanjaro's premier selector during the sound's breakthrough in the early-1980s live-artist era, a period in which Killamanjaro helped launch the careers of deejays including Early B, Super Cat, Lone Ranger and Ninjaman. He left Killamanjaro in 1985 to join a rival set assembled by Skeng Don.

Socialist Roots was a 1970s Jamaican sound system remembered mainly through deejay Ranking Trevor's own account of his early career, part of the roots-to-dancehall transition period's sound-system scene.

Rounds, dubplates and crowd judgement — how sounds went to war on the mic.

A 2010s wave of singers reclaimed roots reggae for a new century.

Most nights a sound system isn't clashing anyone — it's juggling a riddim for a dancing crowd, and someone is taping it.

Pink Panther made Black Kat feared. Tony Matterhorn sharpened his clash craft on King Addies. Then each selector carried that history into a career bearing his own name.