Lucky Phillip Dube is No More

by lute wa lutengano

What a shock it was the other day when I received news that one of my most favourite Raggae musicians Lucky Philip Dube had been killed by carjackers in Johannesburg, South Africa. It was in the morning of last Saturday when a friend rang me from Ku-Joni to break the sad news that Dube had been shot dead in the evening of the previous day, Friday 18 October 2007, at his home in the suburb of Rosettenville, in Johannesburg..

Who was this musician whose Raggae music rocked even the maestros in the genre from the land and Mecca of Ragae, Jamaica itself? Dube was born on 3 August 1964. His mother named him Lucky because he was born in poor health, yet survived. He recorded 21 albums in Zulu, English and Afrikaans in a 25 year period and was South Africa's biggest selling reggae artist.

At the age of 18 Dube joined his cousin's band, The Love Brothers, playing traditional Zulu music known as mbaqanga. The band signed with Tear Records, which became 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. Around this time he also began to learn English.

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. Moreover, he felt the socio-political messages associated with Jamaican reggae were relevant to a South African audience. 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 30000 units his mbaqanga records would sell. However, not discouraged he continued to perform the reggae tracks live and wrote and produced a second reggae album. Think About The Children (1985) reached platinum status and established Dube as a popular reggae artist in South Africa, in addition to attracting attention outside his homeland.

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. 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