Luck Duby
Introduction
Lucky Philip
Dube (pronounced doo-beh) (3 August 1964 – 18 October 2007) was a South African
reggae musician and Rastafarian. He recorded 22 albums in Zulu, English and
Afrikaans in a 25-years period and was South Africa's biggest-selling reggae
artist. Dube was murdered in the Johannesburg suburb of Rosettenville on the
evening of 18 October 2007.
Biography - Early life
Lucky Dube was
born in Ermelo, formerly of the Eastern Transvaal, now of Mpumalanga, on 3
August 1964. His parents separated before his birth and he was raised by his
mother who named him Lucky because she considered his birth fortunate after a number
of failed pregnancies. Along with his two siblings, Thandi and Patrick, Dube
spent much of his childhood with his grandmother, Sarah, while his mother
relocated to work. In a 1999 interview, he described his grandmother as
"his greatest love" who "multiplied many things to bring up this
responsible individual that I am today."
Beginning of his musical career
As a child Dube
worked as a gardener but, as he matured, realizing that he wasn't earning
enough to feed his family, he began to attend school. There he joined a choir
and, with some friends, formed his first musical ensemble, called The Skyway
Band.[8] While at school he discovered the Rastafari movement. At the age of 18
Dube joined his cousin's band, The Love Brothers, playing Zulu pop music known
as mbaqanga whilst funding his lifestyle by working for Hole and Cooke as a
security guard at the car auctions in Midrand. The band signed with Teal Record
Company, under Richard Siluma (Teal was later incorporated into Gallo Record
Company). Though Dube was still at school, the band recorded material in
Johannesburg during his school holidays. The resultant album was released under
the name Lucky Dube and the Supersoul. The second album was released soon
afterwards, and this time Dube wrote some of the lyrics in addition to singing.
It was around this same time when he began to learn English.
Moving into reggae
On the release
of his fifth Mbaqanga 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. At this time Dube began to note
fans were responding positively to some reggae songs he played during live
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.
He decided to
try the new musical genre and in 1984, released the mini album Rastas Never
Die. The record sold poorly – around 4000 units – in comparison to the 30,000
units his mbaqanga records would sell. Keen to suppress anti-apartheid
activism, the apartheid regime banned the album in 1985, because of its
critical lyrics, for instance in the song "War and Crime". However,
he was not discouraged and continued to perform the reggae tracks live and
wrote and produced a second reggae album. Think About The Children (1985). It
achieved platinum sales status and established Dube as a popular reggae artist
in South Africa, in addition to attracting attention outside his homeland.
Commercial and critical success
Dube continued
to release commercially successful albums. In 1989 he won four OKTV Awards for
Prisoner, won another for Captured Live the following year and yet another two
for House of Exile the year after. His 1993 album, Victims sold over one
million copies worldwide. In 1995 he earned a worldwide recording contract with
Motown. His album Trinity was the first release on Tabu Records after Motown's
acquisition of the label.
In 1996 he
released a compilation album, Serious Reggae Business, which led to him being
named the "Best Selling African Recording Artist" at the World Music
Awards and the "International Artist of the Year" at the Ghana Music
Awards. His next three albums each won South African Music Awards. His most
recent album, Respect, earned a European release through a deal with Warner
Music. Dube toured internationally, sharing stages with artists such as Sinéad
O'Connor, Peter Gabriel and Sting. He appeared at the 1991 Reggae Sunsplash (uniquely
that year, was invited back on stage for a 25-minute-long encore) and the 2005
Live 8 event in Johannesburg.
In addition to
performing music Dube was a sometime actor, appearing in the feature films
Voice in the Dark, Getting Lucky and Lucky Strikes Back. Lucky Dube is
considered to be especially remarkable as a Dub Artist due to his lack of a
diasporic cultural base. This was particularly due to the nature of Reggae and
Dub being a platform for expression of displacement from the homeland. In
Prisoner, the South African artist makes the genre his own by applying themes
of apartheid and internal displacement. In the song and music video, he is
found disturbing the bounds of the genre by highlighting the toils of his own
homeland. He was revolutionary in so far as he introduced a competing version
to Reggae's constant tendency of romanticizing the utopian homeland of Africa.
Death
On 18 October
2007, Lucky Dube was killed in the Johannesburg suburb of Rosettenville shortly
after dropping two of his seven children off at their uncle's house. Dube was
driving his Chrysler 300C, which the assailants were after. Police reports
suggest he was shot dead by carjackers who did not recognize him and believed
that he was Nigerian. Five men were arrested in connection with the murder;
three were tried and found guilty on 31 March 2009. Two of the men attempted to
escape and were caught. The men were sentenced to life in prison. Until his
death he was a Christian and refrained from smoking or drinking alcohol in order
to set an example for his children and others who looked up to him.
Legacy
On 21 October
2008, Rykodisc released a compilation album entitled Retrospective, which
featured many of Dube's most influential songs as well as previously unreleased
tracks in the United States. The album celebrated Dube's music and honored the
contributions he made to South Africa.
Conclusion
Lucky Dube was born in Ermelo, a small town
about 150 miles from Johannesburg, South Africa, on August 3, 1964. His mother
had thought that she was unable to bear children, so when he arrived,
"Lucky" seemed like the perfect name. He grew up in poverty, raised
primarily by his grandmother while his mother sough
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