Earl Bourne, The Duke of Earl, was born and raised in Santa Cruz and was introduced to music at an early age. His father and uncle were both musicians, playing mostly early Jamaican mento music in and around St. Elizabeth. After this genre (mento) decreased, his cousin replaced it with a sound system that played emerging genres such as ska and rock steady at dances and that assisted in cementing his love for music.

After graduating from Munro College in the 70s, he moved to Kingston and was exposed to all different types of music including listening to sounds such as Merritone, Afrique and Soul Shack. He migrated to New York in the 80′s and started buying records on a weekly basis and he invited friends over to his apartment every weekend to listen to his music collection. It was then that he realized that this was becoming a serious hobby for him. Twenty years ago, he moved to Atlanta and still pursues his passion of collecting records as a hobby.