The King wears his crown.
Now over the years dub has come to mean many things, whether it be just a taped version of something or a sub-genre of electronic music. Even Dub has gotten sub-genres with dubstep and the likes, but today we’re focusing on the classic Jamaican dub jams that were so prevalent in the 70’s and early 80’s. Dub quickly became a sub-genre of Reggae as many artists would collaborate with dub producers and remix their classic reggae tunes. Dub became so well-known that it influenced the sounds of bands like the Clash or Sublime, but today we’re gonna stick to strictly roots dub of Jamaica:
#5. Mad Professor The Professor gets bonus points for being the first dub artist I got to see in a live setting, so for that alone he takes the #5 spot. This particular song I used to mix in when we had turntables and would play for all the raver kids who didn’t realize I just slipped them a Mickey:
#4. The Aggrovators As opposed to most dub, the Aggrovators were a full band who were led by producer Bunny Lee. A lot of their late 70’s albums were classics in the reggae department and they frequently worked with the likes of King Tubby and Lee Perry. This particular dub is a rendition of Bob Marley’s classic ‘Sun is Shining’:
#3. Augustus Pablo You can’t have a dub compilation and not mention Augustus Pablo. He was one of the most popular dub artists of all-time and his use of the melodica gave his dubs a sweet kick to them. This particular dub came from his album Valley of Jehosaphat which was realeased in 1999, the year of his death:
#2. Lee “Scratch” Perry Scratch was one of the originators of the dub sound, and being as influential as he was, he easily earns the #2 spot. He’s worked with everyone in the history of reggae(such as the original Wailers) and even makes an appearance on the Beastie Boys ‘Hello Nasty’ album, but for dexterity here’s him in his prime:
#1. King Tubby Who else but the King could I put at #1? He along with Perry originated dub, so much that he is credited with inventing the concept of the remix. I doubt many Rap artists knew that, but influence aside, his dubs were always great and mellow. He had a certain swagger to his music that you could just relax, smoke a spliff and enjoy. It’s hard to choose just 1 King Tubby song to represent him, but this one is always my fall-back favorite:
Like Peter Tosh, King Tubby was killed outside his home in 1989, so if you ever go to Jamaica, be sure to pay your respects to the fallen greats.
Honorable Mentions: Scientist, Prince Jammy and the Congos.
BONUS: For being a good sport and hopefully learning a little something about the roots of Dub music, I give you the Congos:
igziabeher 