Meet Lucky Dube – His Story

Transcript

  LUCKY DUBE

Lucky Philip Dube (3 August 1964 – 18 October 2007) was a South African reggae musician and Rastafarian. His record sales across the world earned him the Best Selling African Musician prize at the 1996 World Music Awards. In his lyrics, Dube discussed issues affecting South Africans and Africans in general to a global audience.  He recorded 22 albums in a 25-year period and was Africa’s best-selling reggae artist of all time.

Dube worked as a gardener in his younger years but later decided to go to school in order to improve his economic prospects. There, he joined a choir and with some friends, formed his first musical ensemble, the Skyway Band. While at school, he discovered the Rastafari movement. At the age of eighteen, Lucky Dube joined his cousin’s band, the Love Brothers, playing Zulu pop music known as mbaqanga

The band signed with Teal Record Company and recorded the album Lucky Dube and the Supersoul, and Dube began to learn English. In 1986, together with his cousin Richard Siluma, Dube released the Afrikaans album Die Kaapse Dans, followed by the EP Help My Krap, the same year, under the name Oom Hansie.

On the release of his fifth album, Dave Segal (who became Dube’s sound engineer) encouraged him to drop the “Supersoul” element of the name. All subsequent albums were recorded as Lucky Dube. Around this time, the singer noticed that fans were responding positively to some reggae songs he played during concerts. Drawing inspiration from Jimmy Cliff and Peter Tosh, he felt the socio-political messages associated with Jamaican reggae were relevant to a South African audience in an institutionally racist society.

Voiced and Produced by Lanre Sowobi

Credit

His Story – Created & Produced by:  Deon Sowobi : @Deon_469 (on X)

Podcast Scheduling: David Billeya david@fineradio.co

Social Media Promotion: Boluwatife Adeleke @tifeh_m_adeleke

Adapted for Podcast by: Femi D Amele  femid@fineradio.co / @femidlive 

Distribution: FineRadioCO Distribution

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FineRadioCO His Story Lucky Dube

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David Billeya

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