We remember Iconic Musician “Lucky Dube” on what would have been his 56th birthday. The globally renowned artist has not been forgotten by his fans and his music lives on through the hits like “Slave”, “Remember Me”, “It’s not Easy”, “Respect” – which together have gathered more than 50 million streams globally with ‘Remember Me’ hitting over 20 Million streams.
Gallo

Lucky Dube remains a top seller on digital platforms as well as in retail stores, and is regularly featured in Top 10 album charts with his commemorative album “The Times We’ve Shared” which was released by Gallo Record Company in 2017.

On digital platforms Lucky Dube continues to hit numbers in the millions across streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music

Outside of his home territory of South Africa, on the rest of the Continent, his music is embraced on Mobile platforms like Boomplay putting him in the Top 10 most listened to artists outside of the region in Nigeria, Tanzania, Ghana and Kenya.

He is also embraced on a wider international scale with continued streaming support in the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Brazil.

Lucky Dube remains an ambassador of African music globally, and his legacy still lives on in the conscious message of peace and unity for the world to enjoy.

Music In Africa

Lucky Philip Dube born 3 August 1964 and died 18 October 2007,- 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 best & biggest-selling reggae artist. Dube was murdered in the Johannesburg suburb of Rosettenville on the evening of 18 October 2007.

As a child Dube worked as a gardener but, as he matured, realizing that he wasn’t earning enough to feed his family, he began to attend school. There he joined a choir and with some friends, formed his first musical ensemble, called The Skyway Band. While at school he discovered the Rastafari movement. At the age of 18 Dube joined his cousin’s band, The Love Brothers, playing Zulu pop music known as mbaqanga whilst funding his lifestyle by working for Hole and Cooke as a security guard at the car auctions in Midrand. The band signed with Teal Record Company, under Richard Siluma (Teal was later incorporated into Gallo Record Company). Though Dube was still at school, the band recorded material in Johannesburg during his school holidays.
The resultant album was released under the name Lucky Dube and the Supersoul. The second album was released soon afterwards, and this time Dube wrote some of the lyrics in addition to singing. It was around this same time when he began to learn English.
On the release of his fifth album, Dave Segal (who became Dube’s sound engineer) encouraged him to drop the “Supersoul” element of the name. All subsequent albums were recorded as Lucky Dube. At this time Dube began to note fans were responding positively to some reggae songs he played during live concerts. Drawing inspiration from Jimmy Cliff] and Peter Tosh, he felt the socio-political messages associated with Jamaican reggae were relevant to a South African audience in an institutionally racist society.
He decided to try the new musical genre and in 1984, released the mini album Rastas Never Die. The record sold poorly – around 4000 units – in comparison to the 30,000 units his mbaqanga records would sell. Keen to suppress anti-apartheid activism, the apartheid regime banned the album in 1985, because of its critical lyrics, for instance in the song “War and Crime”. However, he was not discouraged and continued to perform the reggae tracks live and wrote and produced a second reggae album. Think About The Children (1985). It achieved platinum sales status and established Dube as a popular reggae artist in South Africa, in addition to attracting attention globally.
Dube continued to release commercially successful albums. In 1989 he won four OKTV Awards for Prisoner, (which went on to sell over 507 000 units in under 4 months at the time (a sales record held for over a decade!), he won another for Captured Live the following year and yet another two for House of Exile the year after. His 1993 album, Victims sold over one million copies worldwide. In 1995 he earned a worldwide recording contract with Motown. His album Trinity was the first release on Tabu Records after Motown’s acquisition of the label.

In 1996 he released a compilation album, Serious Reggae Business, which led to him being named the “Best Selling African Recording Artist” at the World Music Awards and the “International Artist of the Year” at the Ghana Music Awards. His next three albums each won South African Music Awards. His most recent album, Respect, earned a European release through a deal with Warner Music. Dube toured internationally, sharing stages with artists such as Sinéad O’Connor, Peter Gabriel and Sting. He appeared at the 1991 Reggae Sunsplash (uniquely that year, was invited back on stage for a 25-minute-long encore) and the 2005 Live 8 event in Johannesburg.

On 18 October 2017, Gallo Records South Africa released a 25-track limited edition commemorative album titled The Times We’ve Shared 1964-2007. The album features his biggest hits exclusive performances and 3 previously unreleased tracks

Gone but not forgotten.

Main image Credit: Supplied

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