- Title: GERMANY: AFRICA'S BEST SELLING MUSICAL ARTIST LUCKY DUBE PERFORMS IN MAINZ.
- Date: 27th October 2000
- Summary: MAINZ, GERMANY (OCTOBER 27, 2000) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) LUCKY DUBE IS SAYING "They didn't like reggae period, they just didn't like reggae, because reggae music became a threat to them, because reggae was talking, even though for instance with Jamaican reggae, it was talking about things happening in Jamaica, but it was the same things that were happening in Sou
- Embargoed: 11th November 2000 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: MAINZ, GERMANY
- Country: Germany
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVAB1LFCBVONJGJE4505Q4U7ICXG
- Story Text: Lucky Dube (pronounced Doobay) is a star of the new South Africa, a man who has taken the reggae sounds of Jamaica and adapted them with his own Zulu roots to produce music that paints a musical picture of life in pre and post apartheid South Africa. He has just released his latest album 'The way it is' and is currently on a promotional world tour.
Lucky Dube may not yet be a household name the world over, but he has the distinction of not only being the best selling living reggae artist in the world, but also being THE best selling musical artist in Africa..
Not bad for an African who has taken reggae, a very traditional brand of Jamaican music and made it his own.
"But my style comes from putting my Zulu musical experience with reggae as it's known in the world, but now, in that mix I came out with my own brand of reggae. Because I wouldn't call it African reggae, because this is not what everybody plays back in Africa, even though we have a little, we have some Lucky Dube sound-a-likes coming up, which is a good thing. But this is just my blend of reggae, this is how I understand reggae, this is my interpretation to reggae music...yeah."
Despite the fact that Dube insists that his music is not entirely political, he has long been credited with using his music not only to criticise the white apartheid regimes that ruled South Africa before 1992, but also the situations that remained in his homeland after apartheid was abolished.
His opposition to the apartheid regime meant that much of his music remained largely unheard in his own country.
"They didn't like reggae period, they just didn't like reggae, because reggae music became a threat to them, because reggae was talking, even though for instance with Jamaican reggae, it was talking about things happening in Jamaica, but it was the same things that were happening in South Africa. So the music became a big threat. So when I started out, I suffered a little of course, because the music was not played on the radio; they wouldn't play the music on the radio. And my first album actually was very bad, actually it did very bad on the market, because it wasn't heard and there was no way to like promote it you know. They didn't, anything that said reggae immediately would be banned."
His latest album 'The way it is' is the ninth reggae album he has produced and took him six months to write and produce. After the tour is over, he plans to start working on number ten. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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