if you want to get the origin of hip hop, lee perry and the upsetters' 'jungle lion' of 1969 is a good window.
kind of an unimaginably radical pomo production. alright here's why it's proto-hip hop: samples galore (this is early for that); it's a sonic collage, achieved by hook or by crook. vocals are chanted or interjected rather than sung. there's even that early kind of beatboxing, invented by prince buster in the ska era. and the artist is the dj/producer, ok? on turntables and mixing board.
the biggest difference in what herc and flash brought to new york almost a decade later is the beat: perry works with layers of rock steady recordings, and they work with disco and funk: a much more foursquare beat as opposed to the rock steady-reggae lilt. but even here, perry starts the song on the square soul sample, then drops in the rock steady beat. i have to say that the jamaicans at their best created a richer sonic landscape than early hip hop.
then of course, the traditions just waver into each other again as hip hop comes to infuse jamaican music in turn by the 80s. it's a good example of how real popular music genres occur. later black nationalist themes emerge in hip hop, but that's there in perry too, of course.
