There’s a saying that there are no facts in Jamaica, only versions. (Fittingly, you can find this quote attributed to quite a few different people.) One version of one story goes that the tradition of toasting in Jamaica began when Winston “Count Matchuki” Cooper became annoyed by American deejays from Miami and New Orleans talking over songs he loved. He got the idea that he could turn this into something good. It was around this time that the sound system, which had been around for a short while, became immensely popular. This was a collaborative effort to carry music to people all over the island and involved a truck full of piles of huge speakers and amps, a selector who chose the records, and a DJ who talked in between and over the songs. This was a movement that operated outside the rules the British imposed, and that bridged the complicated era of transition from colonialism to independence. The sound system would share melodies and beats, and DJs could toast over them, sharing their thoughts and feelings. Their voices are distinct and full of character, and their observations are witty, sincere, odd, and oddly perfect.

Toasting, a clear precursor to hip hop, is blessing and praise, but it’s a little bit roasting and boasting as well. It’s poetry. It’s strange catchphrases or noises that are so simple but express so much. It’s clever wordplay based on the original track, which is often pared down to melody, rhythm, and heartfelt chorus. This is simultaneously the most moving, fragile, wobbly, and icily cool music. The DJs vied with each other but supported one another in friendly competition. They all had recognizable and unique styles, and they often quoted one another by name. It’s alternately funny and profound, or both at once. In the early days it was more playful — jive-talking, nursery rhymes, nonsense words — but it became more serious and didactic, with DJs sharing deeper thoughts and life lessons. At times it shared the news of the day or even became political — a talking newspaper. There were a number of notable DJs through the course of the 60s and into the 70s, among them Scotty, I Roy, U Roy, Big Youth, Dennis Alcapone, and the ridiculously charismatic Sir Lord Comic.

One of the earliest and most notable was discovered in 1957 by Count Matchuki who noticed him at one of these sound system gatherings because of his dancing style, “I started my career on a Friday evening in 1957 at the Barbeque Lawn along Fleet Street. Count Matchuki took me on because I could dance.” This was Winston “King Stitt” Sparkes, who would go on to change the genre — in fact to turn toasting into a genre. Matchuki told him, “If you can dance to those records, then you could make a good deejay,” and he did — he went on to become a great DJ. He got the name King Stitt because he stuttered as a child, and he gave himself the name “The Ugly One” because he was born with a facial malformation and had very few teeth. He embraced the situation, and declared, “I am the ugly one, Van Cleef,” referring to Lee Van Cleef in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Some versions of his story say that he used his appearance as a gimmick, and people would attend his shows to see if he was really so ugly. But if this was true it wasn’t true for long, and people began to attend to hear his toasting. His voice is at once plaintive and joyful, and his observations are witty and poetic with just that perfect hint of madness.

There is something beautiful about the fact that he was discovered because he could dance, and that despite having stuttered as a child, he made a name by talking. He embraced what made him different, and realized that it made him cooler than cool. And he was among the first DJs to have songs on the charts, helping to take the genre from the impermanence of live entertainment to the importance of the recording studio. I like to think of a community where this story is possible. To quote King Stitt, “No matter what the people say / These sounds leads the way / It’s the order of the day / From your boss deejay, / I, King Stitt / Haul it from the top to the very last drop.”