ENTITY · PERSON

Count Machuki

Well supported

Winston 'Count Machuki' Cooper (1939-1995) is regarded as Jamaica's first deejay: he began chatting live jive over records on Tom the Great Sebastian's sound in the early 1950s and later became the voice of Coxsone Dodd's Downbeat, directly inspiring U-Roy and the toasting tradition.

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At a glance

Type: person
Confidence: Well supported
Era: Open era →

People & rolesTechnology, recording & industry

Connections

Watch & listen

Count Machuki & The Sound Dimension - More Scorcha

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only · documents

Public youtube upload; embedded as a discovery-only reference pending editorial review.

Transcript pending ingestion.

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Deep Roots Music — Ranking Sounds (Channel 4 documentary)

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only · documentary

Community-archived upload of Howard Johnson's 1982 Channel 4 series; discovery-only embed.

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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.

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In stories

Story · ProbableToasting and the mic

How the sound-system deejay's live talk-over became recorded art.

Story · ProbableThe Downbeat and the Trojan: How Two Kingston Rivals Built the Sound System

In 1950s Kingston, Coxsone Dodd's Downbeat and Duke Reid's Trojan turned rival dances into the foundation of an entire music industry.

Story · ProbableFrom Kingston to the Bronx: DJ Kool Herc and the Sound-System Roots of Hip-Hop

How a Jamaican teenager carried the logic of the dancehall sound system into a South Bronx rec room and helped set hip-hop in motion.

Story · Well supportedApprenticed to the sound: the deejay ladder

Every great Jamaican deejay of the 1960s and 70s served an apprenticeship on a named sound system.

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.

Debate & reception

How people argued about the music — praise, criticism and public debate. See all debate & reception →

debate

Did Jamaican toasting father hip-hop?

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. Sources: Lloyd Bradley, Bass Culture; Jeff Chang, Can't Stop Won't Stop; David Katz, Solid Foundation.

Stance: toasting as a direct root of rap vs hip-hop as a distinct African-American innovation