WATCH: The Story Of The Original UK Soundsystem Culture (Documentary)

Dineen’s cult documentary follows two British sound systems, the legendary Sir Coxsone Outernational (featuring a young Blacker Dread) and the (then) up-and-coming Young Lion, both based in south west London.

Sound system culture was never only a music scene. As DJ Country explains in the film, he would use his sets to also provide news to the community. In a performance shown in the film, he speaks about the New Cross Fire, which killed 13 young black people in 1981, the same year that Dineen made Sound Business. Feeling that there was a cover-up over how the fire broke out, Black people came together to march in the first Black People’s Day of Action, a precursor to the cross-cultural Black Lives Matter marches in 2020 following the killing of George Floyd by police officers in America.

Narrated by Mikey Dread, this original footage from the early 1980’s gives some nice insight into the culture of Sound Systems in the UK. We’re introduced to one particular Sound System, the Coxsone Sound, UK’s Number One in the Reggae Sound System business during the time of this film.

Related