Lucky Dube

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Lucky Dube
Birth name Lucky Philip Dube
Born 3 August 1964
Ermelo, Transvaal (nowMpumalanga), South
Africa
Died 18 October 2007 (aged 43)
Rosettenville, JohannesburgGauteng, South Africa
Genres reggae, mbaqanga
Occupations Musician
Instruments Vocals, Keyboards
Years active 19812007
Labels Rykodisc, Gallo Record Company
Associated
acts
The Love Brothers, Remlius
Lucky Philip Dube (pronounced doo-beh)
[1]
(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-year period and was South Africa's biggest-selling reggae artist.
[2][3]
Dube was murdered in
the Johannesburg suburb of Rosettenville on the evening of 18 October 2007.
[3][4][5]

Contents
[hide]
1 Biography
o 1.1 Early life
o 1.2 Beginning of his musical career
o 1.3 Moving into reggae
o 1.4 Commercial and critical success
o 1.5 Death
o 1.6 Legacy
2 Discography
o 2.1 Mbaqanga
o 2.2 Afrikaans
o 2.3 Reggae
o 2.4 Compilation
3 References
4 Further reading
5 External links
Biography[edit]
Early life[edit]
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, Sarah, who
named him Lucky because she considered his birth fortunate after a number of failed
pregnancies.
[6]
Along with his two siblings, Thandi and Patrick, Dube spent much of his childhood
with his grandmother, 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."
[7][8]

Beginning of his musical career[edit]
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.
[8]

Moving into reggae[edit]
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
[9]
and Peter Tosh,
[7]
he felt
the socio-political messages associated with Jamaican reggae were relevant to a South African
audience in an institutionally racist society.
[9]

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".
[10]
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.
[8]

Commercial and critical success[edit]
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 forHouse
Of Exile the year after.
[11]
His 1993 album, Victims sold over one million copies worldwide.
[2]
In 1995
he earned a worldwide recording contract with Motown. His album Trinitywas the first release
on Tabu Records after Motown's acquisition of the label.
[11]

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.
[11]
His most recent album, Respect, earned a European release through a deal with Warner
Music.
[2]
Dube toured internationally, sharing stages with artists such as Sinad O'Connor, Peter
Gabriel and Sting.
[9]
He appeared at the 1991Reggae Sunsplash (uniquely that year, was invited
back on stage for a 25-minute-long encore) and the 2005 Live 8 event in Johannesburg.
[9]

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.
[12]

Lucky Dube is considered to be especially remarkable as a Dub Artist due to his lack of a diasporic
cultural base. This was particular 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.
[13]
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[edit]
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.
[14]
Dube was driving his Chrysler
300C which the assailants were apparently after. Police reports suggest he was shot dead
by carjackers. Five men have been arrested in connection with the murder.
[15]
Three men were tried
and found guilty on 31 March 2009; two of the men attempted to escape and were caught.
[16]
The
men were sentenced to life in prison.
[17]
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[edit]
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.
[18]

Discography[edit]
Mbaqanga[edit]
Lengane Ngeyethu (1981)
Kudala Ngikuncenga (1982)
Kukuwe (1983)
Abathakathi (1984)
Ngikwethembe Na? (1985)
Umadakeni (1987)
Afrikaans[edit]
Help My Krap (2014)
Reggae[edit]
Rastas Never Die (1984)
Think About The Children (1985)
Slave (1987)
Together As One (1988)
Prisoner (1989)
Captured Live (1990)
House of Exile (1991)
Victims (1993)
Trinity (1995)
Serious Reggae Business (1996)
Tax man (1997)
The Way It Is (1999)
Soul Taker (2001)
The Other Side (2003)
Respect (2006)
Lucky Dube (2007)
Compilation[edit]
Live in Jamaica (2000)
The Rough Guide To Lucky Dube (2001)
Lucky Dube Live In Uganda (2003)
Retrospective (2008)
The Ultimate Lucky Dube (2011)
Lucky Dube meets Uganda's Buka Buka 2003
References[edit]
1. Jump up^