Slave – Lucky Dube

Slave – Lucky Dube

After Peter Tosh died, Lucky Dube became the biggest selling living reggae star in the world until his tragic death in 2007. Not bad for someone who didn’t start out as a reggae artist. Dube’s early musical efforts were in the Mbaqaga style and it was only about 3 years after his first release that he switched to reggae. His reggae career didn’t start well with the release, ‘Rasta Never Die’ being a flop, but the follow up, ‘Think About The Children’ went gold.

Released in 1987, ‘Slave’ was one of his most popular songs which, contrary to what one might think about a song called ‘Slave’ during the apartheid years, was actually about alcoholism. The influence of the likes of Peter Tosh can be clearly heard on this track, but there is also the distinctive township keyboard sound that shows its South African roots.

The…