A Passing Look At Jamaican Vs. American Urban Music
Jamaican toasting and American rap music have four big similarities. They both depend on pre-recorded music, each need a heavy beat to enable the rapping or toasting, and their vocals are timed to the beat of the music. Rap music utilizes hard funk beats while toasting makes use of Jamaican music.
Fourth, the content of the raps and toasts were similar in nature. By way of example, as there were boast raps, insult raps, news raps, message raps, nonsense raps, and party raps there also existed toasts that were comparable in nature. At this point in my unit I will introduce my students to some music of some notable Jamaican toasters like U Roy, Duke Reid, Sir Coxsone, and Prince Buster. Additionally, I will ask my students to bring in some rap records which illustrate the various varieties of raps mentioned above.
Clive Campbell was a Jamaican who immigrated to the Bronx, New York. He brought with him his experiences of the Jamaican mobile discos named ‘sound systems’ and the toasting technique. Inside the Bronx he would acquire the stage name of KoolHerc.
The stage name developed from the nickname Hercules, which was given to Campbell by one more student attending the same high school as he. This name was given to him as a result of his body structure. But, because Campbell didn’t really like the nickname, he shortened it to Herc.
Campbell was also a graffiti artist and when he began performing graffiti he created his graffiti signature, ‘KoolHerc’ derived from his nickname Herc. He began DJ’ing within the early seventies and got himself a large sound system as he wanted to have a huge audience who could all hear the beat.
He rarely played a whole song even though DJ’ing. He selected the parts of the songs that his audience liked. It was about a half a minute period known as a ‘break’ in which the beat was at its’ simplest form through the drums, guitar etc.
Campbell produced what has come to be referred to as “beats’ or “break-beats” inside the DJ’ing field. He did this by using two turn-tables, each having the same record. He would play the record repeatedly giving particular attention towards the break of the song.
As in graffiti, style was crucial and to be imitated if it was very good. What was odd about Herc’s style was that he did not use headphones to locate the breaks on the other turntable as other DJs would do who would later use his style.
He also utilised the toasting approach that he had learnt in his native Jamaica. He would speak straightforward statements over his music. But, because it was more complicated working with two turntables, Herc stopped toasting and began utilizing dancers. These dancers would perform to his music in the club. They were known as ‘break-dancers’.
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