King Stitt Radio

Born Winston Cooper, King Stitt was one of the early DJs on the reggae scene. Spotted by Count Machuki at a dance, Stitt was asked to try his hand at DJing because of his spectacular dance moves. Born with facial disfigurement, Stitt used it as a gimmick, taking advantage of the islanders' love for Westerns and calling himself the Ugly, after Sergio Leone's The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Initially, people went to his shows to find out if he really was ugly or not. After a time, he came into his own as a DJ without needing the gimmick, using ideas taken from radio DJs in Miami and New Orleans that came over the broadcasts to Jamaica. He began working with Coxsone Dodd, and then moved on to Clancy Eccles, with whom he produced a number of works that met with success in both Jamaica and the U.K.-- "Fire Corner," "Herbman Shuffle," and "Van Cleef" (because Lee Van Cleef was the "ugly one" in the movie). Now, he works at Coxsone's Studio One from time to time. ~ Adam Greenberg