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Dub Poetry

Overview Artists Albums Songs

Dub Poetry is an extension of the DJ toasting over instrumental dub tracks that developed in Jamaican dancehalls during the 1970s. There are two major differences that separate dub poetry from standard DJ patter: 1) instead of simply keeping the party jumping, dub poetry is socially and politically conscious, often aimed just as much at preaching about injustice to non-Jamaican audiences; and 2) where toasting developed as a performance-centered, often improvisational art, dub poetry's intellectualism and agenda didn't translate to the party atmosphere in which most live toasting was conducted -- hence, dub poetry was pre-written and gained its following through studio recordings. The two major dub poets are Mutabaruka and Linton Kwesi Johnson, who enjoyed their prime during the late '70s and early to mid-'80s.