Ska music continued to reign in popularity. And as more and more musicians took interest in ska, it kept evolving, taking up the intricacies and influences of everyone who was playing it at the time.

The Wailers, a group consisting of Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Bunny Livingston, pushed the sound of ska a bit further from its traditional trappings and style by slowing the beat down, but those names and that group would become more important later on. This was first heard on the recording “Simmer Down” in 1963. The first ska single to impact the world outside of Jamaica was “My Boy’s Lollipop” by Millie Small. The ska movement began to really assert itself in terms of popularity, spawning artists such as The Skatalites, Phoenix City, and, notably, Desmond Dekker and the Israelites. Dekker and the Israelites pushed the ska sound into faster territory, referred to as “poppa top”.

The releases “shanty town” and “Rude boy train” informed the mythology of the “Rude Boy”, a term that originated prior to the Ska movement and was used to refer to juvenile delinquents. Eventually the term was co-opted by ska enthusiasts to identify fans of the genre, as “rude boys” were the embodiment of the new sound – a “rude boy” was a ska fan whose appearance sometimes mimicked American punks and British mods and thus creating a new look and identity altogether.

Another form of music that actually originates in Jamaica is hip-hop – surprising, but true. The musical foundation of hip-hop is rapping, and rapping actually derived from the Jamaican custom of “toasting”. Toasting originated as a byproduct of sorts from the Ska era in Jamaican music; it was born when dj’s used to talk stylistically over top of the loud beats being played at dancehalls. Most of the time, the toasting was nothing more than the dj making witty barbs at his peers or making funny jabs at local celebrities. Instrumental music became more important when the dj’s became a popular fixture on the dancehall scene in the 60s; the instrumental tracks became the vehicle over which dj’s would toast.

As toasting became more popular amongst dj’s, it became more and more complex – indeed, it was becoming a burgeoning art form and new accessory to the beats and music. By the time the 70s began, the music and toasting was brought to the east coast of the United States, primarily New York City, and it slowly evolved into rapping. And the rest, as they say, is history.

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