Possibly the only Jamaican producer to embrace hip hop music when it exploded throughout New York City during the early 1980s, Keeling Beckford’s role is rarely acknowledged. That did not change as the genre celebrated its 50th anniversary in August.
Beckford, who is from St Mary in eastern Jamaica, is not bothered by the lack of attention. At the time of those festivities in the Big Apple, he was in Europe taking care of business.
“I did shows in London, Spain, and Sweden, but my friends kept me up to date with what was going on in the US,” said Beckford.
He reckons producing as many as 20 hip hop songs with artistes such as Pee Wee Mel, TJ Swann, Grandmaster Kelly P, and Lonnie Love over 40 years ago. They were released by Express Records, a label he operated with Phil Pratt and Claude Smith.
Many of those songs have been released in recent years by British company Soul Jazz Records as part of its Boombox compilation albums which revisit early hip hop.
While proud of his hip hop work, Beckford said credit for the music’s rise must go to savvy administrators like Sylvia Robinson, whose Sugar Hill Records released and marketed groundbreaking songs such as Rappers Delight by the Sugarhill Gang, and The Message by Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five.
“She was the biggest thing, but we did our thing in the beginning. If I knew it [hip hop] would get so big, I wouldn’t have left it,” said Beckford, who started his career as a teenager during the mid-1960s.
His breakthrough song was Combination, produced by Enid “Dell” Barnett in 1968. For over 40 years he operated Keeling’s Records in Brooklyn.
This year saw the re-release of three of Beckford’s albums, Cowboy Man, After the Party, and Combination.
Hip hop historians credit Jamaican sound system maverick DJ Kool Herc for creating hip hop on August 11, 1973 at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in The Bronx when he played at a back-to-school party for his younger sister, Cindy.
On National Heroes’ Day he received the Order of Distinction, Jamaica’s sixth-highest honor. In November, DJ Kool Herc will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
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