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PHOTO BY LEE ABEL

Do you ever worry about having your car taken away in broad daylight?
—Lucky Dube, “Crime and Corruption””

Throughout his life and in his stellar musical career Lucky Dube addressed the very thing that
killed him—in songs like “Guns and Roses,” “Victims,” “Crazy World,” “Cool Down,” “My Broth-
er, My Enemy,” “Til You Lose It All” and “Together As One.”
Just as he sang of the issues of apartheid, race and politics, he spoke out against crime and violence on a global and a local level. I first inter-
viewed Lucky Dube back in the early ’90s when I was writing for the now-defunct L.A. View. That interview, with updates and discography,
appeared in my book Roots Rock Reggae, published in 1999. That same year Lucky Dube issued The Way It Is (Shanachie), with standout tracks
PHOTO BY CHUCK FOSTER

like “Man in the City,” “Crime and Corruption” and “You Stand Alone.” A “best of” called The Rough Guide to Lucky Dube (World Music Network)
gathered cuts from earlier releases in 2001; the following year Soul Taker (Shanachie) included standout tracks “Put A Little Love,” “Teach the
World” and the contemplative “Is This Freedom.” Tours and festivals continued and 2007’s Respect (Gallo) brought great new songs.
On Sept. 9, 2007 Lucky Dube dropped in for a visit on “Reggae Central” on KPFK-FM in L.A., a little over a month before his tragic death. I
asked my associate producer, Justine Ketola, to drape the back wall with a Lucky Dube Fan Club flag I’d held onto for many years for just such
an occasion. He stopped still when he saw the red, green and gold banner emblazoned with his face. “I’ve had that a long time,” I said. “A long
time,” he agreed. The following is a verbatim transcription of my last visit with roots giant Lucky Dube as we talked about music and life. In
between I played tracks from the new album, from which I have extracted a few quotes.
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We’re living in the world with a lot of crazy people

We’re living in a world with a lot of psychopaths.
Everyone of them wants to rule the world...
It is a give or take world.
So you gotta take what you can when you can,
Make the best of it....
Some people don’t know what life is worth.
Some people have the front row seats at the gates of Hell.
You could have problems now
But there’s no problem worth your life.
—Lucky Dube, “Celebrate Life”

Chuck Foster: Welcome to “Reggae Central.”

Lucky Dube: Hey, how ya’ doin. Yes, yes.
Q: Great to have you in town.
A: Very nice to be back, man. It’s been a long time.
Q: We’re looking through some Lucky Dube music here and, so much great music over—
what, the last 20 years or more?
A: It would be about 20 years or maybe just a little over, yeah. A little over 20 years now.
Q: You’re from South Africa and yet you’re one of the world’s great reggae performers—
that’s kind of unusual.
A: [Laughs] Well, I get that all the time, and of course wherever we go people would think
we are from Jamaica and stuff because that’s where—that’s what reggae is known for. You
talk reggae music, you talk Jamaica. You talk Jamaica they think reggae music. Or some-
times you talk reggae they think ganja and stuff like that.
Q: But reggae music is a music of liberation that’s gone international and you’re one of
the people who really held to the high ground of reggae when a lot of Jamaican reggae
kind of turned in another direction. You stuck with a sound and a style that we first came
to know through artists like Jimmy Cliff and Bob Marley and the Wailers, Peter Tosh—and
so great thanks to you for keeping this great revolutionary music happening.
A: Yeah, mon! It happens as an artist all the time that there’s new styles come in all the
times and always you would be attracted to change but we were fortunate that we were
still attracted to the old-school thing, we were still attracted to the to the Bob Marley,
Peter Tosh style of message-based music instead of what’s happening now.
Q: Interestingly now there’s kind of been a return to conscious and cultural music with a
lot of new young Jamaican artists who have sort of picked up that torch and are moving
that message music forward again.
A: Which is good!
Q: So you really helped create a bridge that brought us to the present time from the clas-
sic time. And your sound is so classic too, even the keyboard sound that you use on your
records, the arrangements, the number of instruments that you use—when did you really
start playing in the reggae style? I know your earliest records were really more in an
African style, right?
A: Yeah, it was mbaqanga, like this one I was looking at right now [holds up the Celluloid
album Umadakeni featuring a cover photo before he had grown dreadlocks] this is from
the mbaqanga era Umadakeni. Yeah, that was mbaqanga. But now when we started doing
reggae we kinda incorportated the mbaqanga sound into the reggae we were doing just
to give it a unique sound so it doesn’t sound like anybody else, it just sounds like Lucky
Dube, that’s it. Even though the inspiration comes from Peter Tosh, Jimmy Cliff, Bob
Marley and those guys but we didn’t want to sound like them, we just got the inspiration
from them and we kind of incorported the Zulu stuff, the mbaqanga stuff into the reggae.
Q: Well, and also you have an amazing vocal range so that you can do a low Peter Tosh
kind of a voice, or a voice out of the Temptations, I mean, your vocal range is pretty
incredible.
A: Well thank you.
Q: Yes, great singer, great writer, great artist and many great cds and records over the
years but we want to concentrate on some of this new music because this is an excellent
new cd so now I want to play the song called “Respect” from the new album and we’re
gonna come back and speak live in the studio with Lucky Dube.

I give love to those who give me love and love to those who give me war.
I love those who hate me, I bless even those who curse me.
—Lucky Dube, “Respect.”

Q: I have a couple of cds by your band the Slaves. Do you have the same band, or some
changes over the years?
A: Well, over the years there has been some changes you know, because people need to
grow, you know, sometimes some of the guys go to be producers, some of them go to be
whatever whatever, we have some changes yes in the band but we still have two guys
from the original band Slaves still with us.
Continued on page 63
THE BEAT VOL. 27 #1, 2008 39
last visit with lucky dube going to close with the song called “Political me;” which the King quickly follows up with “I
Continued from page 63 Games.” want to know if you love me because of my
I’ll cross the river for you baby,” because that’s a A: “Political Games. To them it’s only a job, but money or because I’m manager of the bank. Tell
lie—you know you find that a singer would sing to us it hurts to the bone.” ★ me why you love me; I want to know. Tell me
those kind of things and he cannot even swim! why you care.”
Q: To climb that metaphorical mountain. He wraps it up and rings down the 11-song
A: So I cannot lie with music and some of the dance-alicious musical discussion with an
stuff, yes, is based on my personal experience all over the map uptempo “Mtoto wa Mjini,” number, which sings
and some of it of course is from people because Continued from page 25 the praises of Dar es Salaam and the many bands
we get a lot of feedback from people about the you’re not out under the harvest moon. who have played in the nightclubs there—Msondo
music that we write and some of the stories that Ngoma, OSS, DDC Mlimani Park, Jamhuri Jazz,
we write about is stuff that we get from people. INDIA Kiko Jazz, Uda Jazz and Police Jazz. I want to
Say after a show we would sit there with people Zakir Hussain, Best of Zakir Hussain (ARC know who all these wonderful musicians were,
and just talk to them and they would tell us maybe Music): “Best”? I don’t know about that. Great? but I am quite content to simply listen over and
how the music helped them and things like that. Yes. The prolific master of the tabla is showcased over and over.
Just like the song “Celebrate Life.” I think we in solo and duet selections, which provide ample Mr. Wamala has informed me that a new re-
were in the Caribbean some time ago, I can’t re- evidence of his amazing mastery of more rhythms cording by the King, who will be accompanied
member the island whether it’s Anguilla or what- than can be imagined by mere mortals. I’d like a by some of the all-time greats of the muziki wa
ever, one of those islands and after the show a true “best of” from him, which would have to in- dansi scene, the Tanzanian All Stars, including
guy comes to us and we’re backstage, tired and clude the Diga Band, Shakti, Tabla Beat Science, veterans of some of those above-mentioned bands,
everything so he wants to see us and we always much solo stuff. Bring it on, he said, respectfully. Muhaddin Ngurumo, Badu Kabeya, Hasani
make time to talk, meet and greet people. And the Rough Guide to Indian Lounge (World Mu- Bitchuka, Huseni Jumbe, Shabani Dede, Said
guy says “I’m so happy to see you” and ah, like, sic Network): I tend to boycott any cd with Mabera, Tshimanga Assosa and Bonivila, will
OK, great, he says “Nice show. But I have a story “lounge” in the title. What are they thinking? Who soon be released. Sometime after that, Msondo
to tell you. You know, I was a rich man, I had wants to “lounge”? Never mind. At least there is Ngoma Vol. Two will follow. Stay tuned to this
everything, I had a wife and then I divorced my some very enjoyable music here, most of it pro- station and hopefully elsewhere for further devel-
wife, whatever, and now she took everything, pulsive enough to, er, rock the lounge, and other opments. [[email protected] ]
somehow with the lawyers they did whatever they than Apache Indian and Bally Sagoo, the artists
did and she kind of took everything and I was are all new to me. Some of this is quite beautiful [[email protected] ]
ready to go and kill myself. And then I heard on so excuse the title and enjoy.
the radio that you are coming here and I kinda”— Anousha Shankar and Karsh Kale, Breath-
he postponed his suicide thing because he had to ing Under Water (Manhattan): Speaking of beau-
see us! And after listening to the music and we tiful, Anoushka Shankar has some very good Papa wemba
talked to him for about an hour or something and genes. No, no, I mean musically. Beyond her Continued from page 51
he said wow, you know, I now kind of feel the glammed-up allure in the photos here, she has al- All three fit in well with the Viva style of animating
need to be alive again. And I need to celebrate ready proven to be an emerging master on the si- but, like the singers, sound integrated but at the
being alive and that’s when we kind of wrote that tar, sometimes playing with her legendary father— same time slightly invisible.
song. as happens here on two gorgeous tracks. Her de- If I sound slightly critical of Nkunzi Nlele it is
Q: What great power music has. but solo cd Rise was very well done, but here we because I am not entirely convinced by the whole
A: Yeah! get, egads, Sting, and her relation Norah Jones, to album. In recent months I have been listening to
Q: All right we’re gonna give a listen now to the sell “product.” Pick and choose any type of much old Viva la Musica music and most of it is
song “Changing World” from the new cd and we’ll sound—that’s what Shankar and Kale have done so exceptionally good that it makes the new group
come back and speak live again with Lucky Dube. here, it seems—and you’ll likely find something pale in comparison. Despite this there are a few
to strike your fancy. tracks that manage to reinforce my belief that Papa
He has no crystal ball but he sees the future Wemba is still capable of leading a tight and cre-
Doesn’t like what he sees, but what can he do? POP TILL YOU DROP ative band. Santiago’s “Bitumba ya Ba Baba” pulls
—Lucky Dube, “Changing World” Joe Henry, Civilians (Anti-): This singer/ out some great vocal performances, especially
songwriter with a gruff voice and fairly dark view from Christian Lema who also excels on his own
Q: What a forward contemporary guitar sound you on human relations and other things has a grow- composition “Fay.” Wemba’s “J.P. Walter” is
have on this one! ing following due to his inventive, evocative sweet, and Guy Guy Fall’s “Surprise” is a classic
A: Yes, yes! We always like to do some rock stuff. songs and arrangements. He’s been around for which allows all the singers a chance to sing a
Because I still listen to rock music right now. I going on two decades but this new release is be- solo line. It also allows him to demonstrate how
like rock. And so we take a little bit from rock as ing heralded as his best yet. I don’t know yet, his voice sounds like a perfect cross between ex-
well and bring it together with reggae, together being still stuck on his cd Scar from a few years Viva stars Reddy Amisi and Stino Mubi. Another
with mbaqanga just to get a unique sound. back, wherein he had the honor of having Ornette highlight is Iko’s “Duente” which revives the tra-
Q: I want to thank you so much for coming by, I Coleman as a guest (and before that, he’d roped ditional lokole log drum that Wemba championed
know you’ve got sound check and things to deal in the late legend Don Cherry). This ain’t jazz, back in the mid-’70s. Nkunzi Nlele will not go
with, thanks very much for being with us on as those icons might suggest, but bluesy/folky down as one of the greatest-ever Papa Wemba al-
“Reggae Central.” Americana at its best. ★ bums but it is a satisfying return to the style of
A: Thank you man. We’re looking forward to music that he does best—modern Congolese mu-
seeing everybody at this show and we have a new sic, not watered-down “world music.”
album, it’s called Respect and of course we will african beat
be playing from the older stuff because it’s still Continued from page 48 Contact Martin Sinnock at martin
very much alive and so we’re gonna play some warm food handed through an open window. [email protected] or write to
tracks from the new album Respect and this is Zilizopendwa starts right out with a love song, P.O. Box 406, Croydon CR9 1XR, England.
gonna be great so we’re looking forward to seeing “Kama Kweli Wanipenda,” that firmly sticks its Check out the www.africasounds.com Web site
everybody out there tonight! tongue into the cheek of the eternal, pleading where Martin Sinnock’s extended articles can be
Q: Thanks so much for joining us here and I’m question, “I want to know if it’s true you love found.

64 THE BEAT VOL. 27 #1, 2008