Toyan - or Ranking Toyan as he is also called - emerged in the mid-seventies when he started to appear on the sound system scene of Kingston JA, soon becoming a highly rated live performer with local sounds like Social Roots and Romantic Hi-Fi. He was heavily influenced by the deejays Big Youth and Dillinger, whose approach he adapted when he started his recording career with producer Don Mais of Roots Tradition in the latter half of the seventies.