U-Roy (born Ewart Beckford, OD, 21 September 1942, Jones Town, Jamaica) is a Jamaican musician, also known as The Originator. He is best known as a pioneer of toasting, a precursor to rapping. Career U-Roy's musical career began in 1961 when he began deejaying at various sound systems, including a stint operating Sir Coxsone Dodd's Number Two set, while King Stitt "The Ugly One" ran the main set, eventually working in the late 1960s with King Tubby, at Duke Reid's Sound System. Tubby was then e… (More on U-roy)