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U-Roy obituary Peter Mason © Provided by The Guardian Photograph: David Corio/Redferns Of the many innovations Jamaican music has offered to the world over the past 50 years, the lyrical art of “toasting” has had perhaps the most profound and long-lasting impact. A stylised, poetical form of chatting and scatting, it was brought to prominence in the early 1970s by the reggae deejay U-Roy, who has died aged 78, and has fed into many musical forms, from hip-hop to grime. U-Roy – whose real name was Ewart Beckford – did not actually invent toasting: that distinction is...

U-Roy was a worldwide influence thanks to his original "toasting" sound

Pioneering Jamaican artist U-Roy has died Tributes to the veteran toaster have been pouring in from the likes of Ghostpoet, Shaggy and David Rodigan U-Roy, the pioneering reggae and dancehall artist, has died at the age of 78. The artist, MC and veteran toaster passed away last night (February 17) at the University Hospital of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica following surgery earlier this week, U-Roy, who was born Ewart Beckford in Jones Town, Jamaica in 1942 and was also known as Daddy U-Roy or The Originator, was renowned as a pioneer of the toasting vocal style in reggae and dancehal...