I Roy was born Roy Samuel Reid in 1944 and had worked in the civil service as an accountant before forming his own disco, 'Sons Junior', and, taking up the microphone he traveled across Jamaica DJ'ing, taking the name I Roy in honor of the pioneering DJ U Roy. Many small one man disco operations would have been active playing at parties and other functions, DJ'ing or 'toasting', as it came to be known generically, came about as an extension of the DJ announcing or 'rapping' over the music, they were soon using remixed, usually, popular, tunes with the vocal track removed, that when played would present the audience with a familiar tune that the DJ could then add his/her own improvised, often topical, scats or lyrics. These would sometimes become more popular than the original, which, along with encouragement from his hero and mentor U Roy, lead I Roy, in 1972, to make his own recordings. His lyrics were thoughtful and intelligent, and the early outings on wax were with producer Harry Mudie, he later worked with Augustas 'Gussie' Clarke, who he cut the formidable Black Man Time, over Lloyd Parks original Slaving, pictured above. For most of the later 1970s I Roy worked as producer at Channel One. He died, just age 55, after suffering a long illness, on November 27th 1999, penniless and sleeping rough on the streets of Spanish Town, shortly before his death his physical suffering was added to by the news that one of his two sons had been brutally murdered in prison. 
 

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