DUB POETRY

History of dub poetry

Although it is only within the last 30 years that the terms "dub poetry" & "rapso" have passed into the common musical lexicon, both forms arose perhaps 25 years earlier than that, in response to an extraordinary challenge thrown down to Caribbean artists by the intelligentsia to prove that the "common man" could create uncommon art. It is a challenge which has been met so frequently, that today it is not even an issue. Fundamentally, the two styles are parallel branches of the same tree, distinguished more by their musical accompaniment than by any variation in form. Dub poetry tends toward a reggae (but not necessarily dub)-based backing, rapso combines the "rap" with calypso or, in the hands of more practitioners, soca. [Read more...]

In London in 1974, Jamaican immigrant Linton Kwesi Johnson (b 1952, Chapeltown, JA) published Voices of the Living and the Dead, a slender collection of writings about life in black Britain, notable not only for its measured debate and livid consciousness, but also for its utilization of a local London-Jamaican patois which had never been placed in print before. Published in 1975, Johnson's second collection, Dread Beat Blood, confirmed his impact, while his journalism appeared both in the music papers (he was reggae correspondent for the New Musical Express and Black Music) and in the cultural press (the Race Today cooperative newspaper). Johnson was long accustomed to giving readings at parties, meetings and rallies; beginning in late 1976, he moved onto a wider stage, assembling a backing band and performing his poetry to music. Within a year, he was recording his first album, Dread Beat an' Blood, credited to Poet & The Roots (Island, 1977); within days of its release, what the music press hastened to term "dub poetry" was a reality.

For Johnson and those dub poets who emerged in the wake of his breakthrough (most notably Benjamin Zephaniah — born 1958, Birmingham, England; he first published in 1980, and released his Dub Ranting debut album in 1983), the road to both musical and literary acceptance was paved by the British West Indian community's own awareness of its importance, and the need to nurture its artists whatever mode of expression they chose. Similar growth attended Mutabaruka, following his arrival on the Jamaican scene with his Sun and Moon poetry collection in 1976. After three years of increasingly adventurous experiments with a band, Mutabaruka was a runaway success at the 1981 Reggae Sunsplash. Indeed, within two years, he was proudly watching as his most promising protege, Jean Binta Breeze, graced the same stage in her own right.

Elsewhere, Oku Onuora (b Orlando Wong, 1952 — Kingston, JA) emerged from seven years in prison for armed robbery (where he first started writing poetry) in 1977, to cut the single "Reflections in Red" with the Wailers' rhythm section. A cynical study of the recent truce declared in the battle for Kingston's streets (Onuora performed the piece at the One Love Peace Concert the following year), it was the first shot in a volley of extraordinarily dramatic releases, both by Onuora and Mutabaruka, and a growing brigade of other young Jamaican poets.

Bass Culture	Dread Beat An' Blood	Forces Of Victory
Independant Intavenshan	LKJ In Dub	LKJ In Dub vol 2
LKJ In Dub vol 3	Making History	Reggae Greats

Check It !	Dub Poets Dub	Live At Reggae Sunsplash
Outcry	The Mystery Unfolds	The Ultimate Collection

Benjamin Zephaniah Rasta	Michael Smith Mi C-Yaan Believe It	Oku Onuora I A Tell ... Dubwise & Otherwise
Oku Onuora & AK7 Pressure Drop	Various Artists R.A.P.P Presents Wicked City	Various Artists Woman Talk
Various Artists Words Sound 'Ave Power

DUB POETRY

History of dub poetry

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