Who was the man? That's interesting that he is from NC as most AA new Yorkers have roots there.
The first rapper to rap TO a beat and not just do spoken word or call/response:
Coke La Rock - Wikipedia
How Jamaicans learned to toast::
In the late 1950s deejay toasting was developed by
Count Machuki.
[2] He conceived the idea from listening to disc jockeys on American radio stations. He would do African American
jive over the music while selecting and playing R&B music.
How Jamaicans adopted sound systems:
The
Kingston-born Dodd used to play records to the customers in his parents' shop. During a spell in the
American South he became familiar with the
rhythm and blues music popular there at the time. In 1954, back in Jamaica, he set up the Downbeat Sound System, being the owner of an
amplifier, a
turntable, and some US records, which he would import from
New Orleans and
Miami.
With the success of his
sound system, and in a competitive environment, Dodd would make trips through the US looking for new tunes to attract the Jamaican public. While he did, his mother
Doris Darlington would run the sound system and play the tunes. Dodd opened five different sound systems, each playing every night. To run his sound systems, Dodd appointed people such as
Lee "Scratch" Perry, who was Dodd's right-hand man during his early career,
U-Roy and
Prince Buster.
