Showdown - the Caribbean answer to Verzuz

Swizz Beats and Timbaland were the masters of the battle last year with their Verzuz shows, but it had all started in the Caribbean, half a century ago, NPR argues. The story goes back to Jamaica in the late 1950s, when the streets of Kingston hosted rabid competitions between DJ crews or "sound systems", blasting imported jazz and blues on colossal speakers stacked high. DJs staged lyrical battles onstage and in the studio, with some clashes so intense that the authorities have had to be called into suppressing them. Verzuz was born on that tradition, and last autumn a Caribbean battle show Showdown debuted with artists Alison Hinds from Barbados and Patrice Roberts from Trinidad. Showdown is born from Verzuz, which is in turn born from Jamaican dancehall, which is born from American jazz and blues, NPR concludes.