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U-Roy is dead: Reggae DJ is considered the first toaster and rap precursor

2021-02-19T12:25:14.593Z


He made chanting about reggae rhythms popular in Jamaica - and thus paved the way for rap. Now Ewart Beckford, who called himself the toaster U-Roy, died at the age of 79.


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Ewart Beckford alias U-Roy (1941-2021)

Photo: Jack Vartoogian / Getty Images

The Jamaican reggae pioneer Ewart "U-Roy" Beckford is dead. He died on Wednesday at the age of 78 in the Caribbean island nation, as the record company Trojan Records announced on Thursday.

The Jamaican newspaper "The Gleaner" wrote that Beckford had died after an operation in a hospital in the capital Kingston.

The cause of death was initially not disclosed.

Beckford, also known as "Daddy U-Roy" and "The Originator", was considered to be the pioneer of the spoken singing style "Toasting", which is used in reggae and related music styles such as dancehall.

Inspired by the song announcements by American radio presenters, U-Roy, as a DJ for Jamaican sound systems, spoke more and more riotously between and soon also during the songs at the end of the sixties.

The sound system operator and dub pioneer King Tubby provided reverb effects with which U-Roy could alienate his voice, and produced versions of reggae hits that left extra space for the toaster to throw in.

U-Roy is therefore also assigned a pioneering role in the development of hip-hop.

DJ Kool Herc, who first hosted block parties in the Bronx in the 1970s, was a Jamaican immigrant and influenced by the sound systems and speaking DJs.

New fame from the Mad Professor

For the "Zeit", U-Roy 2000 was the "undoubted godfather of all modern DJs and MCs from Jamaica and the rest of the world", she praised his "mind-expanding babble".

Over the course of his long career, Beckford has worked with greats in Jamaican music such as Lee "Scratch" Perry, Peter Tosh and Toots and the Maytals.

U-Roy became known beyond the Caribbean island in the mid-1970s when the British record label Virgin released albums such as “Dread in a Babylon” or “Natty Dread”.

U-Roy gained new attention in the 1990s through recordings with British dub producer Mad Professor.

He also performed regularly in Europe at this time.

Jamaica Prime Minister Andrew Holness quoted an early U-Roy hit on Twitter as "Wake the town and tell the people!"

"Wake the Town" was his first single in 1970;

the wake-up call became known to a new generation when it opened as a sample of the new version of Dawn Penn's hit "You Don't Love Me (No, No, No)", which in 1994 also became a hit in Germany.

"Jamaica has lost a giant in the music industry," wrote Prime Minister Holness.

He joins the grief of the whole country.

The Jamaican pop star Shaggy wrote on Instagram: "Today we lost one of our heroes!"

Icon: The mirror

feb / dpa

Source: spiegel

All life articles on 2021-02-19

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