Cooper was born in
Kingston, Jamaica, and began working on
sound systems in the 1950s, when the music played was largely American
R&B. His stage name of Count Matchuki derived from his habit of chewing matchsticks. He added talkovers to the songs, emulating the
jive talk of American radio
DJ's at the request of Dodd, who became familiar with the US style on his visits to the States to buy records to play on his sound system. He thus originated a
deejay style that was later developed by artists such as
U-Roy. Matchuki started by adding spoken introductions to the records that were played, taking inspiration from the American magazine
Jive. Winston "Count Matchuki" Cooper died in 1995. ==References==