Lucky Philip Dube was a South African reggae
musician. He recorded 22 albums in Zulu, English and Afrikaans in a
25-year 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.
Lucky Dube was born in Ermelo, then in the Eastern
Transvaal, near the house now Mpumalanga, on 3 August 1964. His
parents separated before his birth and he was raised by his mother,
Sarah, who named him 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."
Beginning of his musical career
As a child Dube worked as a gardener but, 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.
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. 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.
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.
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. Keen to suppress anti-apartheid activism, the
apartheid regime banned the album in 1985. [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.
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.[11] His 1993 album, Victims sold over one million copies
worldwide.[2] 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.[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 Sinéad O'Connor, Peter Gabriel and Sting. [9] 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.
On October 18, 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. Police reports
suggest he was shot dead by carjackers. Five men have been arrested
in connection with the murder. He is survived by his wife, Zanele,
and his seven children.
His death was referenced by Nas in the song "Be A
Nigger Too". Nas rhymes, "Ok, Some africans don't like us no way, A
killing happened in Johannesburg yesterday, Slain artist named Lucky
Dube, hijacked"
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Dube
