Since then Lucky and his band, Slave, performed all over the world.
His platinum double live album Captured Live outsold any international music. His 1989 album Prisoner sold over 100, 000 copies worldwide. Although he began as an mbaqanga (traditional Zulu) music singer, Lucky Dube’s career boomed in 1987 when his third album, Slave, was released and let off massive hit singles: “Slave,” “I’ve Got You Babe,” and “Back to My Roots,” which led to a record breaking sold out performance in Johannesburg of over 50,000 people. His mother named him Lucky because he was born in poor health, but he survived. While successful reggae artists have traditionally hailed from the Island of Jamaica, over the decades of the 1980s and 1990s South African native Lucky Dube (pronounced doobay) delivered some of the most conscious and substantive roots reggae songs to hit the airwaves.ĭube became the best-selling artist in all of Africa during the 1980s and ’90s, and gained popularity in North America, the Caribbean and Europe. Your Connection to traditional and contemporary World Music, including folk, roots, global music, ethno and crosscultural fusions
