Lucky Philip Dube was born on 3rd August 1964 in Ermelo,
Mpumalanga, South Africa. He
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. Dube was murdered in the Johannesburg suburb of
Rosettenville on the evening of 18 October 2007.
Lucky Dube started his music career early in life in a local
choir from where he formed his first music group The Skyway Band with his
friends. At age 18, he joined his cousin’s band The Love Brothers playing Zulu
pop music known as Mbaqanga. He was later exposed to the Rastafarian Movement
and began to write and perform reggae songs. He noted that his fans were
responding positively to his reggae songs. Lucky then drawing inspiration from
Jimmy Cliff and Peter Tosh felt the socio-political messages associated with
Jamaican reggae were relevant to a South African audience in an institutionally
racist society.
Lucky Dube’s big break in the commercial reggae came with the
release of “Think About The Children” in 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. The rest they say is
history, suffice it to say that Dube continued to release commercially successful albums till
his sudden death in the hands of armed robbers in Johannesburg. Some of the
most popular and successful albums recorded by Lucky Dube include: Slave (1987);
Prisoner (1989); Captured Live (1990); House of Exile (1991); Victims (1993); Trinity
1995); Soul Taker (2001); and Respect (2006).
Lucky Dube won several international awards including "Best
Selling African Recording Artist" at the World Music Awards; and the
"International Artist of the Year" at the Ghana Music Awards both in
1996.
Rest on Great Son of Africa! Your music lives on!
