Jamaican and Trinidadian Roots

The Caribbean roots of Hip-hop are much less familiar than its seemingly more immediate connections to R&B and the "dozens," but in many ways they are just as vital. Part of the reason, no doubt, was that when the first Hip-hop histories were written, much of the relevant material was not readily available in the US on disc (in the UK, where Blue Beat had been established since the 1960's, things were much different).

There are two key strands of influence. From Trinidad came the traditions of Calypso, which had a strong political strain from its very earliest days in the 1930's. With names such as "Mad Lion" and "Atilla the Hun," Calypsonians took on the local government as well as the "Big Empire," and traded call-and-answer songs on topics of the day. The melodic and rhythmic elements of Calypso translated easily in to US markets, but only in the form of cover versions and imitations by American artists such as the Andrews Sisters and Harry Belafonte. The political messages came through only indistinctly, and their influence was muted.

Jamaican music came much later -- there were no established recording studios until the late 1950's, two decades after Trinidadian artists had cut their first singles. The Jamaican tradition began with the "sound system" men, such as Duke Reid, who played both American singles (a costly and scarce commodity) as well as a few "specials" that they recorded and pressed in very limited quantities exclusively for their personal use.

Prince Buster, whose record shop on Orange Street became almost a national landmark, was among the first to take the next logical step and release singles for mass consumption. Along with his arch-rival Leslie Kong (whom Buster dissed as a "Black Head China Man"), he helped start the Jamaican recording industry, releasing not only his own dance and talk-over records, but also more traditional artists such as Count Ossie.  He took on many different personas in his talk-over records, perhaps most infamously the figure of "Judge Dread," who was known for sentencing "rude boys" to terms of more than five hundred years in prison!

Through distribution deals in the UK, where a significant number of Jamaican emigrés formed a faithful audience, Buster's influence reached international proportions. Ska intermingled in the UK with rock and skiffle and other home-grown forms, giving rise to the Two Tone movement and bands such as the Clash who were as much at home with a Ska shuffle as a 4-4 rock beat.

Eventually, of course, Bob Marley re-wrote the book, bringing rich, rhythmic, and politically potent music to the world, and making a fortune for Island Records. But in many ways it was the earlier Caribbean music forms, ones which -- much as Hip-hop would later -- came up from the streets by means of minimal technology and resources -- that laid the conceptual groundwork for the idea of a DJ talking over beats, and eventually bringing those two forms together to make new recordings.

So give a listen -- you can easily find many tracks via YouTube or at any online music services -- what do you hear in these old discs? How direct is the line of influence? And what surprised you most?