Blackford was born in Morant Bay, Jamaica, c.1945, and moved to Wandsworth, London in 1962.
[1][2][3] With his surname borrowed from one of Jamaica's leading sound system operators and producers, Clement "Coxsone" Dodd, Blackford operated his own Coxsone Sound system in London from 1965 through to the 1980s, gaining a residency in the 1970s at the Roaring Twenties club in Carnaby Street.
[1][2] In the early 1970s he began working as a producer, having success with one of the early lovers rock hits, Louisa Mark's "Caught You in a Lie";[2] Coxsone is credited with paving the way for lovers rock by incorporating soul records into his sound system sets.
[6] In the mid-1980s, Coxsone took a back seat with his sound system, allowing younger men such as Blacker Dread to take a leading role.
[3][7] He was paid tribute by I-Roy on the single "Lloyd Coxsone Time".