Do the Rock Steady 1966-68 / Various

The late sixties and early seventies spectacle of Jamaican deejays taking their live performances out of the dance halls and translating them into hit records not only marked the beginning of forty years of dance hall driven music on the island but also provided the original inspiration and template for the global dominance of rap and hip hop. The early performances of deejay pioneers, such as Count Matchuki and Sir Lord Comic on foundation Kingston sound systems during the fifties and early sixties, have disappeared into the balmy Jamaican nights and live on only in folk memory. "Matchuki was the first rapper and gave pure nursery rhymes over the rhythm... like 'Tom the Piper get higher...' and 'love the life you live and live the life you love 'cause love is mine to give' and things like that. Sir Lord Comic used to play King Edwards the Giant sound and his favorite words were 'Adam and Eve went up my sleeve and they never came down till Christmas Eve. Hey now! Mama is uptown shopping while father is downtown on business'. Heh, heh, heh. That's Sir Lord Comic... he was good too."