Dennis Alcapone initially trained as a welder and worked for the Jamaica Public Services. Inspired by the big sound systems that he had visited in his youth such as those run by Duke Reid, Coxsone Dodd and Prince Buster, and particularly King Tubby’s Home Town Hi-Fi, which featured the DJ U-Roy, and the Kentone sound system featuring DJ Pamapdo, Dennis teamed up with two friends, Lizzy and Samuel the First, to set up his own “El Paso” sound system in 1969.

With Dennis as DJ, the El Paso sound system grew in popularity and caught the attention of producer Keith Hudson, who asked him to record for him, with hits soon following in the form of “Spanish Amigo”, “Shades Of Hudson”, “Revelation Version”, “Maca Version” and “The Sky’s The Limit”, all in 1970. Dennis then moved to Coxsone Dodd’s Studio One where he decided on a change of name, ‘Al Capone’ being a nickname that had stuck with him since going to see a gangster movie with friends.