Biography

An enigmatic and highly individual performer on the U.K. sound system scene, Jah Shaka's forward-thinking style combined steadfast Rastafarian beliefs and roots reggae sounds with a dub experimentalism that incorporated electronic elements without losing any heaviness. Jah Shaka's output in the '80s and '90s was minimal and exciting, and he worked with reggae legends like Horace Andy and Max Romeo on various chapters of his Dub Salute series, as well as racking up installments of his Commandments of Dub sets. Shaka's style was highly influential on the waves of U.K. dub that followed his, as well as corners of jungle, drum-n-bass, and other bass-forward forms of electronic music. In addition to running his own label (Jah Shaka Music), he remained highly active with sound system performances and other live appearances until slowing down somewhat after suffering injuries related to a house fire in 2000. Jah Shaka was born in Jamaica in 1950 and moved with his parents to Southeast London at the age of eight. In the '60s he began playing in a live band and traveling with an obscure London sound system named Freddie Cloudburst. When conceptualizing a name for his own sound system in the early '70s, he combined his spiritual interest in Rastafari with the 18th century Zulu, King Shaka. Jah Shaka's sound system specialized in booming, dubwise steppers material and exclusive cuts on dub plates, and by the end of the '70s he had amassed an almost-religiously devoted following. In 1980, Shaka inaugurated his Jah Shaka Music label with the release of "Jah Children Cry" by African Princess, which sold well in the reggae market. This was followed by the first installment in his long-running Commandments of Dub series. Over the years, the label issued well over 50 releases by U.K.-based artists such as Junior Brown, Sgt Pepper, Vivian Jones, Sis Nya, and the Twinkle Brothers, as well as dozens of releases by Shaka himself, and Jamaican artists such as Horace Andy, Icho Candy, and Max Romeo. With the decline of interest in Rastafarianism in the '80s, Shaka’s dance parties thinned out considerably. However, his adherence to Rasta, and the particular type of heavy, spiritual reggae with which his name has become synonymous, remained unswerving. By the latter part of the decade, a new, young multiracial crowd of roots fans had begun to appear. Out of this crowd emerged a number of artists and sound systems that largely shunned contemporary reggae in favor of the revived sounds of the '70s and early '80s in which Shaka still specialized. Some members of this new camp of listeners would go on to create music of their own, influenced directly by Shaka's unwaveringly heavyweight dub sound. Jah Shaka continued to perform internationally, playing in New York, London, and parts of Japan and Europe, well into the 2020s. He died on April 12, 2023, at the age of 75. ~ TiVo Staff, Rovi