Lucky Dube Wows His Fans at The Brickyard

By Ike Mgbatogu

< Posted October 8, 2002 >

Lucky Dube's reggae caravan cruised into Columbus as part of a United States tour to promote his new CD entitled "Soul Taker". On October 8, the South African reggae luminary performed at The Brickyard Bar where some of his most ardent fans, including me, saw him live for the first time. The Columbus concert was one of the three stops slated for the Buckeye State. Lucky Dube, widely dubbed the Africa's King of reggae, will perform at the Cincinnati's 20th Century Theater on October 9 and Cleveland's Peabody's Down Under on October 10.

Lucky Dube was born in 1964 in the Eastern Transvaal town of Ermelo, South Africa. Early in his life, young Lucky had an incessant desire to learn about the world and the turbulent history of his country choking from the brutality of apartheid. Lucky was only nine years old when he was selected as the library assistant at his school. In his position as the library prefect, Lucky became a ferocious reader - widening his scope of black consciousness and honing his radical thoughts and ideas. During these formative years, Lucky became exposed to the Rastafarian religion and the global protest for black humanity.

Lucky's interest in the Rastafarian faith grew rapidly alongside his passion to write and sing protest songs against apartheid policy of the white minority government. Some of the initial reggae albums that captivated and inspired him were by Peter Tosh, a radical reggae heavyweight of the 70's and 80's who would later become a source of profound musical influence to the aspiring young artist.

Lucky's growing interest in the music business led to the formation of his first group - The Skyway Band. Soon after the formation of Skyway, Producer and Cousin Richard Siluma discovered Lucky's deep-seated talent and subsequently helped to launch and guide his career as a Mbaqanga singer. Soon after the release of an album entitled Mbaqanga as a member of The Love Brothers Band in 1982, Lucky went solo with the release of Lengane Ngeyetha - followed by another album entitled Kukuwe. Both albums were huge hits that paved the way for Lucky to make the transition to his first love - reggae and Rastafarianism.

In 1985, Lucky and his producer Richard Siluma clandestinely recorded Rasta Never Die - keeping their Record Company - Teal Records - entirely in the dark. Although Rasta Never Die sold dismally, due precisely to its censure by the South African government, it introduced Lucky as a conscious reggae artist poised to collide head-on with the cruel policies of apartheid. Undaunted, Lucky surged ahead with the release of Think About the Children - paving the way for the formation of his reggae band in 1987 - The Slaves.

With The Slaves fully constituted and ready to go, Lucky released his third reggae album entitled Slave in 1987 - thrilling his growing fans to such hits as "Back to My Roots", "Slave" and "I've Got You Babe". The success of Slaves went a long distance in establishing Lucky as a legitimate reggae artist and a bona fide dreadlock Rasta, though known largely in South Africa. But Lucky's local stardom quickly changed soon after he and his high-powered band took their show to the road, thrilling huge international audiences to mesmerizing performances and garnering rave reviews as the foremost disciple of the late bush doctor brother Peter Tosh.

In 1988, Lucky released Rasta Never Die the second time in response to the growing demand for the album. That same year, Together As One was released and then Prisoner the following year. Both albums posted huge dividends for Lucky and his band. Prisoner ultimately became his best album with over 1,000,000 units sold worldwide - an astonishing feat that placed him in the luminary roster of only a handful of reggae artists - dead or alive.

Other albums by Lucky Dube include Captured Live, Victims, House of Exile, Serious Reggae Business, Trinity, Tax Man, The Way It is, and Soul Taker.

Lucky Dube and The Slave performed tracks from nearly all his albums, with most of the songs picked from the recently released Soul Taker album. Some of the tracks on the play list include Remember Me, War and Crime, Different Colors/One People, Don't Cry, Feel Irie, The Way it is, I've Got You Babe, Take it to Jah, Guns and Roses, Sleeping Dogs, Money Money Money, Love Me [The Way I am] and Romeo.

Copyright © 2002 Ike Mgbatogu / Onumb Communications. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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