Style(s) music(aux) : Music

Nationality : South Africa

Bio:

Lucky Philip Dube (pronounced doo-bay) (August 3, 1964 — October 18, 2007) was a South African reggae musician. His mother named him Lucky because he was born in poor health, yet survived. He recorded 21 albums in Zulu, English and Afrikaans in a 25 year period and was South Africa's biggest selling reggae artist.
As a child Dube worked as a gardener but, 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, however he abstained from drinking alcohol, or smoking cigarettes or marijuana; a practice he continued through the rest of his life.
At the age of 18 Dube joined his cousin's band, The Love Brothers, playing traditional Zulu music known as mbaqanga. The band signed with Tear Records, which became Gallo Record Company. Though Dube was still in school, the band recorded material in Johannesburg during his school holidays.
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 30000 units his mbaqanga records would sell. However, not discouraged he continued to perform the reggae tracks live and wrote and produced a second reggae album. Think About The Children (1985) reached platinum status and established Dube as a popular reggae artist in South Africa, in addition to attracting attention outside his homeland , he felt the socio-political messages associated with Jamaican reggae were relevant to a South African audience. He has been quoted as saying that Jamaican reggae superstars Bob Marley and Peter Tosh have been big influences on his musical career.
Dube has released a bunch of commercially successful albums. In 1989 he won four OKTV Awards for “Prisoner”, won another for Captured Live the following year and yet another two for “House Of Exile” the year after. 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.
Dube was murdered, in the presence of his son and daughter, by several apparent carjackers in the Johannesburg suburb of Rosettenville on the evening of 18 October 2007.