Sound systems usually fall in one of two catagories, "juggling" or "clash" sounds. Although nearly all sounds collect dubplates, the objective of juggling sounds like Renaissance and Stone Love is simply to rock the party. Clash sounds like Black Kat, Kilamanjaro and Bass Odyssey make their money from, as the name suggests, clashing with other sounds. They participate in formal, organized cometitions that take place in Jamaican communities around the world, from London to Toronto to New York.   

Traditionally, clashes too the form of grudge matches between two sounds. Since then, however, large sclae, well-organized promoters like Irish and Chin have set up super-contests, like their World Clash series, which incorporates reggae sounds over the world in a five-sound play off. The crowd judges the winner, and sounds play in rounds, initially trading 30-minute sets, then 15, and then, if it's a close match or high-profile event where the crowd demands the added excitement, the ocontest goes to dub-fi-dub (tune for tune), the penalty kicks of the soundclash world.  (Mighty Crown recently defeated Tony Matterhorn in every round of a clash, but he drew fire in the dub-fi-dub, and won the clash.)

The sets are orchestrated by a selector (DJ) and a mic man (MC), who work in combination, first by introing a song and then by playing it.  Reactions are gauged  by cries of "forward," gun-finger salutes, whistles, real gun salutes or airhorns signalling approval, or boos if the sound can't satisfy the audience. The pawns in the game are not regular records, but one-offs known as dub-plates or specials.  These originated as test pressings for commercially released records; grooves are cut into a solid disc of acetate which can then be played like a vinyl disc, albeit for a limited amount of plays only.  Dub plates are usually custom recordings from popular artists who will record a version of a popular song, changing the lyrics to incorporate the name of the sound system in it.  For particularly important clashes a selector will pay the artist to transform the lyrics so that the opposing sound of its selector or it's selector is dissed by name, specifically for the clash.

And of course, dub plates don't come cheap.  Depending on the popularity of the artist in question specials can cost up to $2000.00.  At the big, well-organized and publicized clashes, the rule is no vinyl allowed.  It's immediate disqualification for a soundboy who draws vinyl.  Therefore, to clash with the big league sounds is an expensive business.  Sounds play for hours on end, which means a lot of dubs, so of course the longer the sound has been around, the more valuable the treasured dub box is worth.

Kilamanjaro, for instance, has one of the most envied dub boxes in the scene. Around for over 20 years they have plates from artists like Tenor Saw (who was murdered in '88, morbidly increasing the value of his dubs--a younger competitor cannot answer it with another by him) and they also have dubs from artists like Supercat, who rarely voices dubs.  Bounty Killer is also a favorite artist for dubplates because many of his lyrics are about guns and thus are perfect to "kill a soundboy."  Plus, his notoriously high pricees accord his plates "designer" status.  Other dubplates with value are those from what are termed "foreign" artists, that is, foreign in Jamaican terms--international pop artists.  Wycleff Jean's Refugee Sound System played in Jamaica two years ago at the Fully Loaded clas, bringing down the house with their Michael Jackson and Kenny Rogers dubplates.  But, of course, as well as those plates are received, Clef is still Clef and so the aquiring of such dubplates is not as much of a feat as it would be for a sound like Bass Odyssey.

Dubplates are a big part of reggae's economy.  Sounds are key to artists' livelihoods, because the chaotic nature of the Jamaican record industry means that even hit records rarely make much  money for those that voiced them. Producers tend to make all the money from a hit record, but what a hit does is open the doors to shows and dubplates, which is where an artist can earn his corn.  And when artists need money they will usually visit studios like Arrows or Safire in Kingston and Don 1 in New York (especially in December when the need to do  Christmas shopping grows pressing) to voice dubs for sound systems who want to buy (last fall, Elephant Man was rumored to have been robbed of 17,000 (Pounds) on his way back to a London hotel from a night of voicing dubs).

Reggae's grassroots economics continue at the clashes themselves, which are recorded by the "tape men" who distribute cassettes, CDs and sometimes videos of the night through a worldwide network, and sales run into the thousands.  Don Lou, owner of his eponymous tape shop in Flatbush is one of New York's "name brand" tape vendors.  "Tape men are one of the main [forms of] promotions in the reggae business," he explains, "because if something happens in Jamaica we let you hear it around teh world.  You can play every night of the week in Jamaica, but no one will hear about what you are doing unless its on one of the tapes." The life span of a clash tape, however, is short.  "They sell for two weeks and then they die.  That's it.  For instance, a few weeks ago the Mighty Crown/ Bass Odyssey clash in New York sold hard.  A week later was World Clash in Jamaica and that was it for the New York tape."

Lou notes that while some promoters charge him to tape their events most see the promotional value and allow him to tap into a line out of the mixing board and sell to his retail customers and wholesale to other tape vendors.  What sells? "Over the years Stone Love always stands out as a juggling sound," says Don Lou.  "Addies was the last really good sound from New York that was cutting dubs and playing dubs.  We definitely had a big market for Addies, but the other local sounds don't cut dubs so getting them live is nothing more special than regular juggling and what the people want on tapes is to hear dubs." Dubs, for all their importance, are still only as crucial as the man who plays them.  And the mic man must be equally as strong.  If he doesn't intro a dub right, prepare the crowd for it, or the mic man gets booed before the selector even gets to drop the tune, then it becomes a $1,500 dud-plate.  At most clashes the audience is predisposed towards one sound, and often the clash is a psychological battle between the men who run the sounds.  No tune can be played twice, so if you know, for instance, that Fire Linx (a popular selector) has the newest hot Capleton, you beat him to it by playing it first.  And hopefully your mic man will have mocked and ridiculed him thoroughly, to get the audience onnn your side rather than his, so they'll be less generous with the "forwards." Sometimes sounds will gang up on others to get them out of the competition first.  In the 1999 World Clash, Tony Matterhorn had just left King Addies, a New York sound with an extensive collection.  Everyone knew Tony didn't have access to the Addies dubs anymore, and he didn't have any oldies.  So Mighty Crown and Kilamanjaro decided to compete vintage tune for vintage tune, and Matterhorn was the soundboy that got killed that night.

However, Matterhorn learned from his defeat, and voiced a selection of vintage artists for his library, and recently emerged as champion of the most recent World Clash, held in Jamaica in April.