Reggae Legend Lucky Dube Shot Dead Today In Johannesburg, South Africa

18 October 2007 11:38

Reggae musician Lucky Dube was shot dead in a hijacking on Thursday in
Rosettenville, Johannesburg police said.

Captain Cheryl Engelbrecht said the incident took place at about 8.20pm
when Dube (43) was driving a blue Volkswagen Polo in the Johannesburg
suburb.

She said Dube was dropping off his son in the area when he was
attacked. "His son was already out of the car. When he saw what was
happening, he ran to ask for help."

The hijackers were still at large. The boy was too traumatised to
provide police with any information, Engelbrecht said.

Dube, born in Johannesburg on August 3 1964, was named "Lucky" as he
was born in poor health and doctors thought he would die, according to
Wikipedia. But Dube survived and went on to become a front-line artist
in the reggae genre. However, the singer's website, Luckydubemusic.com,
says: "Giving birth to a boy was considered a blessing and his mother
considered his birth so fortunate that she aptly named him Lucky."

He recorded more than 20 albums in his music career, which spanned more
than 20 years, according to Luckydubemusic.com. His albums include
Rastas Never Die, Think about the Children, Soul Taker and Trinity. His
latest, released in 2006, is called Respect.

The build-up to this international success, though, started in 1982
with the release of Kudala Ngikuncenga, an album that was not reggae
but mbaqanga, a genre that was to serve him well for four more albums
until his transition to reggae in 1985.

"The change was brought about by the fact that I wanted to reach the
world. With mbaqanga I would have been seen as a tourist musician," he
told the Mail & Guardian in an interview in 2001.

"Don't waste your time and mine," a concert promoter told Richard
Siluma, Dube's producer at the time. "No one wants to hear reggae."

By 1987, Dube was the sole reggae star among South African "disco" acts
and established music acts such as Brenda Fassie, Stimela and the Soul
Brothers.

His introduction to the international stage was heartening, such as
when he was invited to play at the Sunsplash Festival in Jamaica in
1991. He recalled how the spiritual home of reggae had been waiting for
him and his band. "We knew they love the music. They said we remind
them of Peter Tosh." On the final evening of the festival they were
called back for an encore -- and for another performance the next year.

The reggae sensation, who did not drink or smoke cigarettes or
marijuana, despite the association of the substance with Rastafarians,
had won more than 20 awards for his music contribution locally and
internationally. He is the only South African artist to have a record
signed to Motown Records, according to Luckydubemusic.com.

His reception on the international stage had been mixed, however.
European audiences had argued that he sang world music and local
audiences felt his music had changed to an extent that it flew over
them.

This did not seem to bother him. "We have found that locally the
audience does not grow with you. People expect me to still be doing
Ayobayo, yet that was 1987 and this is 2001," he said in the M&G
interview.

Dube always had to fend off questions of whether he was Rastafarian.
"If Rastafarianism is about having dreadlocks, smoking marijuana and
believing that Haile Selassie is God, then I am not Rastafarian. But if
it is about political, social and personal consciousness, then, yes, I
am," he said.

Although his idol was Peter Tosh, he acknowledged the unshakeable
influence of the king of reggae, Bob Marley, whom he described as "the
reason we know reggae".