Podbit · Call Her Daddy
Before mainstream fame, Chloe and Halle opened the Europe leg of Beyoncé's Formation World Tour — triggering songs from a beat machine that would overheat in the summer heat. They didn't care. They danced and gave it everything.
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At 11:15 · chapter starts 8:30
The origin story of Chloe x Halle is simultaneously lo-fi and mythic. It was their older sister Skye who pushed them to post YouTube covers, inspired by how Justin Bieber had broken through the same way. The girls were reluctant until 'Best Thing I Never Had' felt undeniable. They burned the instrumental on a CD, plugged a stereo into the wall, pressed record with Skye's toe, and wore their 'dressiest shirts' — later swapped for simpler tank tops. [1] — Chloe Bailey "Chloe and Halle's cover of 'Pretty Hurts' went viral, Beyoncé's mom texted her 'sign these girls,' and Beyoncé replied she already had. The…" 10:00 From that raw footage, a chain reaction began. Their cover of 'Pretty Hurts' eventually hit 23 million views and reached Beyoncé directly. Within a month, Chloe and Halle were meeting her in a dark warehouse, where she was shooting a commercial in a white jumpsuit. When Beyoncé's mother Miss Tina later texted Beyoncé urging her to sign them, Beyoncé replied she already had.
Chloe and Halle's YouTube cover of Beyoncé's 'Pretty Hurts' went viral and directly led to them being signed to Parkwood Entertainment, Beyoncé's label.
Chloe and Halle's cover of 'Pretty Hurts' went viral, Beyoncé's mom texted her 'sign these girls,' and Beyoncé replied she already had. The warehouse meeting, the white jumpsuit, the angel in the dark — and a sign from a childhood photo taken when Chloe was 4.
Beyoncé's mother Miss Tina also sent Beyoncé the YouTube video saying 'you need to sign these girls,' to which Beyoncé replied she already had.
Chloe x Halle opened for Beyoncé's Formation World Tour on the Europe leg before they had mainstream recognition.
Reggae didn't emerge from thin air — it was built layer by layer from mento in the 1940s, ska in the late 1950s, and rocksteady in the mid-1960s. Each stage absorbed new influences, from transistor radios picking up Miami R&B to the distinctive 2-and-4 rhythmic accent that defines the genre.
Before hip-hop existed, Jamaican DJs were already doing it. Electricity spreading across Jamaica enabled mobile 'sound systems,' and DJs developed toasting — speaking and singing over recorded music — a tradition that DJ Kool Herc brought from Kingston to the Bronx at age 12.
Joe Higgs is reggae's great unsung hero. This Kingston musician took teenage Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Bunny Wailer under his wing and taught them how to sing, write songs, and make music — at a time when most artists would have focused on their own careers. Without him, the Wailers probably just would have sucked.
Reggae archivist Roger Steffens' analogy says it all: Bob Marley was reggae's Martin Luther King Jr., making the music universally palatable; Peter Tosh was its Malcolm X, inserting fierce militant political energy. Together, they gave the Wailers a depth no single voice could achieve alone.
King Tubby built his own hardware from cast-off recording gear to strip vocals and create dubbed-out instrumental reggae — essentially inventing electronic music in Kingston before Kraftwerk did it in Germany. The dubplate he created became the raw material for DJs to toast over, seeding hip-hop.
Two days before the 1976 Smile Jamaica anti-violence concert, gunmen shot Bob Marley in the chest and shoulder, shot Rita Marley, and wounded two others. He showed up and played anyway. The concert had already drawn accusations that Marley was a tool of the PNP government — a charge that frustrated him deeply.
Peter Tosh's killer was a man Tosh had taken in after prison, giving him shelter and food. The man repaid that generosity by holding Tosh hostage, torturing him for money, and shooting him in the head. It is one of the most brutal betrayals in music history.
The Windrush Generation brought Caribbean music to London after World War II, and reggae's 2-and-4 rhythm lodged itself deep in British culture — giving birth to ska bands like The Specials, pop acts like UB40, and even punk. Johnny Rotten was a reggae fan, and Public Image Limited has the dub influence to prove it.
Reggaetón didn't come from nowhere. It emerged from underground Spanish-language reggae-rap scenes in Panama and Puerto Rico, drawing directly on Jamaican reggae's rhythms and attitude. The line from Kingston to Bad Bunny's Super Bowl performance is a straight one.
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