Jamaican Toasting

Jamaican Toasting

In Jamaican music, the act of singing or chanting over an instrumental riddim is known as toasting. Toasting was developed in the late 1950’s by a man everyone called Count Machuki.  He originated the style actually from listening to American radio stations and became annoyed when the DJ’s would talk about the song while it was playing.  He decided to flip it around and would create his own lyrics and chants over the instrumental versions of popular dancehall or reggae music.

Toasting or deejaying is not be confused with DJ’s.  Deejaying was when someone would travel around with a large sound system and play all of the latest hits at parties.  This was the first of its kind to have people bring sound systems with them that usually contained large speakers and have a library of beats and riddims to play. The Deejay would feature toasting as part of the entertainment for the evening.  Depending on the style of the music being played and the style the Deejay preferred toasts would consist of comedy, boastful commentaries, half-sung rhymes, rhythmic chants, squeals, screams, and rhymed storytelling.  

In the 1960’s and 1970’s is when toasting really took off and became popular in Jamaica.  It was very common to hear toasting at all the of dancehall shows and reggaetón performances.  There was starting to become famous toasters that would tour the island known as U-Roy and Dennis Alcapone performing for everyone to hear.  They were known for the mixing of gangster talk and comedy into their toasts.

Once we started to reach the 1980’s, it had made its way to America from the likes of DJ Kool Herc and Phife Dawg of a Tribe Called Quest. It is considered to be the first stepping stone into how rap and hip hop came about.  More and more people were beginning to freestyle and add their own styles of flow over beats and instrumental tracks.  The ties that Jamaican toasting has to today’s African American culture is great helping lead the way into what is now known as rap music.

Bibliography

Romer, Megan 23 March 2017: https://www.thoughtco.com/toasting-definition-3553018

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