World of Jamaican Music

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An illustrated map of the creators of Jamaican music and how they are connected.

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Joseph "Jojo" Hoo Kim

Producer. Reggae, dub

Active
1972-1990s
Sunrise
1942, Kingston, Jamaica
Sunset
September 20, 2018, New York (liver cancer)
Also known as
Jo Jo Hookim, JoJo Hoo Kim, Joseph Hoo Kim

Joseph "Jojo" Hoo Kim built and ran Channel One, the studio at 29 Maxfield Avenue that produced the rockers sound of the mid-1970s. The family name is also written Hookim and Hoo-Kim.

He was the eldest of four brothers, with Paul, Ernest, and Kenneth, in a Chinese Jamaican family whose business was jukeboxes and slot machines until the Jamaican government outlawed gaming machines in 1970. He became interested in recording after visiting Dynamic Sounds with John Holt, and the brothers built Channel One in 1972 and opened it in 1973, buying an American console and at first letting other producers record free in order to build custom. Their first release was "Don't Give Up the Fight" by Stranger Cole and Gladstone Anderson. Sid Bucknor was the first engineer; Ernest took over the desk about a year later. Joseph produced, Paul ran the associated sound system, and Kenneth began producing in the 1980s. The family also ran its own pressing plant and label-printing shop.

From the mid-1970s the house band was the Revolutionaries, built around Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare with a rotating cast that included Ansel Collins and Tommy McCook. Dunbar's drumming and the band's reworkings of Studio One riddims, which Hoo Kim was open about, defined the studio's output. The Mighty Diamonds' "Right Time" (1975) is the record usually cited as its clearest statement. Channel One recordings were routinely sent to King Tubby's to be mixed. Hoo Kim said his own engineers were "mixing like they are playing a keyboard, because their hands are all over the console." The Hoo Kims were the first in Jamaica to issue a twelve-inch 45, "Truly" by the Jayes.

Paul's life was taken during a robbery in 1977, after which Joseph spent most of his time in New York, returning to supervise sessions. The studio was upgraded to sixteen tracks in 1979, and he and Ernest opened a New York studio in the early 1980s. Channel One remained in demand with outside producers, among them Sly and Robbie and Henry "Junjo" Lawes, and closed in the early 1990s. The building at 29 Maxfield Avenue was demolished in September 2026; the municipal planner said no approval had been granted. Kenneth departed in 2013 and Joseph in New York in 2018; the causes were lung cancer and liver cancer respectively.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. Bradley says Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, paired at Channel One, "came up with the 'rockers' rhythm pattern." Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 335. The Rough Guide places the studio "north of Spanish Town Road on Maxfield Avenue." Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 156. Katz says the family bought the building at 29 Maxfield Avenue in 1966. Kelly Doherty and David Katz, "Remembering Joseph Hoo-Kim: The Legendary Roots Producer and Channel One Founder," The Vinyl Factory, March 13, 2019, https://www.thevinylfactory.com/features/remembering-joseph-hoo-kim-reggae-producer-channel-one. Katz gives his birth year as 1942; the Observer gives his age at his sunset as 76 and Katz as 75. Doherty and Katz, "Remembering Joseph Hoo-Kim." Howard Campbell, "Joseph Hoo Kim's Legacy Lives On," Jamaica Observer, September 22, 2018, https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2018/09/21/joseph-hoo-kims-legacy-lives-on/.
  2. Bradley and the Rough Guide write "Hookim"; Katz writes "Hoo-Kim." Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 354; Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 156; Doherty and Katz, "Remembering Joseph Hoo-Kim."
  3. Bradley says the brothers "began life as jukebox/fruit machine operators and moved into the music business when the Jamaican government outlawed gaming machines." Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 354. Wikipedia, citing the Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music, gives 1970. "Joseph Hoo Kim," Wikipedia, accessed October 2, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Hoo_Kim. Campbell says the family also ran an ice cream parlor and a sound system. Howard Campbell, "Joseph Hoo Kim's Legacy Lives On," Jamaica Observer, September 21, 2018, https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2018/09/21/joseph-hoo-kims-legacy-lives-on/. Katz quotes Hoo Kim saying his jukebox business started "about 1960." Doherty and Katz, "Remembering Joseph Hoo-Kim."
  4. The Rough Guide says the brothers built the studio in 1972 and had it operational by 1973; Bradley says they opened it in 1973. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 228-29; Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 354. Campbell and Katz give 1972 for the opening. Campbell, "Joseph Hoo Kim's Legacy Lives On."; Doherty and Katz, "Remembering Joseph Hoo-Kim." Katz quotes Hoo Kim on the Holt session ("I was fascinated with the sound in the studio"), on paying "$38,000 for an API console," and on the early sessions: "we gave everybody a free try." Doherty and Katz, "Remembering Joseph Hoo-Kim."
  5. The Rough Guide calls it "the first release on the Channel One label in 1973." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 229. Campbell says the label "hit the ground running with Delroy Wilson's It's A Shame." Howard Campbell, "R.I.P. Jo Jo Hoo Kim," United Reggae, September 23, 2018, https://unitedreggae.com/news/n2050/092318/r-i-p-jo-jo-hoo-kim.
  6. The Rough Guide has Bucknor in charge of recording, "assisted by Ernest Hookim." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 229. Hoo Kim told Katz, "Sid Bucknor lasted about a year." Doherty and Katz, "Remembering Joseph Hoo-Kim."
  7. Campbell says Paul "operated their sound system which helped expose the studio's productions" and that Kenneth "got into production in the early 1980s"; in an earlier report he says Kenneth began producing in the late 1980s. Campbell, "Joseph Hoo Kim's Legacy Lives On."; Howard Campbell, "Kenneth Hoo Kim Is Dead," Jamaica Observer, October 5, 2013, https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/entertainment/kenneth-hoo-kim-is-dead/. The Rough Guide says the Channel One sound system was launched in the early 1970s by Ernest and Joseph, and Bradley that the brothers "started with the Channel One sound system." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 156; Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 354.
  8. Wikipedia, citing the Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music. "Joseph Hoo Kim." Katz says Hoo Kim later opened a pressing plant in Long Island City in 1982. Doherty and Katz, "Remembering Joseph Hoo-Kim."
  9. The books differ on when the band was formed. The Rough Guide says the distinctive Channel One sound emerged in mid-1975 and that Sly and Robbie "began playing together regularly in 1975." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 156. Bradley says it "wasn't until 1976" that the Hookims employed the Revolutionaries. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 335. Both list Ansel Collins and Tommy McCook among the players. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 156-57; Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 358.
  10. The Rough Guide says the "rockers" rhythms were "mostly based on Studio One classics from the previous decade." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 157. Katz quotes Hoo Kim crediting I-Roy with choosing "the songs what we must version," and saying of Dunbar, "we tell him what to play." Doherty and Katz, "Remembering Joseph Hoo-Kim." Dunbar told Bradley that Hoo Kim "cut dubs just to make sure the drums was perfect." Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 479.
  11. The Rough Guide dates "Right Time" to 1975. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 157. Dunbar told Bradley, "You first really hear it on the Mighty Diamonds' 'Right Time.'" Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 479.
  12. The Rough Guide says I-Roy encouraged the Hookims to visit Tubby's to hear the studio equipment in use there, and that Ernest "is usually credited" with the Channel One dub remixes, with I-Roy also involved; it notes that the producer Bertram Brown recorded at Channel One and had his sessions mixed by King Tubby. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 229, 186. Hoo Kim named Barnabas, Chemist, and Scientist among the engineers who mixed Channel One dubs. Doherty and Katz, "Remembering Joseph Hoo-Kim."
  13. David Katz, "Remembering Joseph Hoo Kim," Vinyl Factory, March 13, 2019, https://www.thevinylfactory.com/features/remembering-joseph-hoo-kim-reggae-producer-channel-one.
  14. Wikipedia, citing the Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music, which dates the record to 1976 and says it was also the first single to combine sung and deejay versions, with Ranking Trevor. "Joseph Hoo Kim." Discogs lists a twelve-inch pressing on the Disco Mix label credited to J. Ayes and Ranking Trevor. "J. Ayes and Ranking Trevor, Truly / Yaho," Disco Mix 12-inch, Discogs, accessed October 2, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/3180865-J-Ayes-Ranking-Trevor-Truly-Yaho.
  15. Hoo Kim told Katz that Paul was killed in 1977: "It was a robbery, they rob him for his gun." He added, "That was the main thing why I came abroad." Doherty and Katz, "Remembering Joseph Hoo-Kim." Wikipedia says that from 1979 he returned every month to supervise sessions. "Joseph Hoo Kim."
  16. The Rough Guide: "As of 1979 the Channel One studio had new sixteen-track equipment." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 282. Wikipedia's article on the studio, citing David Katz's Solid Foundation, dates the sixteen-track upgrade to 1975. "Channel One Studios," Wikipedia, accessed October 2, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_One_Studios. The New York studio is from Wikipedia, citing the Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music. "Joseph Hoo Kim." Katz describes a Brooklyn record shop, J&L Records, and a pressing plant rather than a studio. Doherty and Katz, "Remembering Joseph Hoo-Kim."
  17. The Rough Guide says Channel One "enjoyed a minor renaissance" in the early 1980s as "a studio used by producers who didn't have facilities of their own," and that Scientist, Junjo Lawes's preferred engineer, was hired there. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 282, 240. Katz says Sly and Robbie cut their Taxi productions there. Doherty and Katz, "Remembering Joseph Hoo-Kim." The closing date is from Wikipedia, citing the Jamaica Observer. "Channel One Studios."
  18. Howard Campbell, "Historic Channel One Studio Demolished Without Approval," Jamaica Observer, September 9, 2026, https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2026/09/09/historic-channel-one-studio-demolished-without-approval/.
  19. Campbell says Kenneth died of lung cancer at sixty-six, in October 2013, and that Joseph died of liver cancer in New York on September 20, 2018. Campbell, "Kenneth Hoo Kim Is Dead"; Howard Campbell, "'Jo Jo' Hoo Kim's Funeral on Oct 20," Jamaica Observer, October 10, 2018, https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2018/10/10/jo-jo-hoo-kims-funeral-on-oct-20/.

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