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Reggae legend Jah Shaka has died just days after revealing a new tour date.
Jah, who was also known as Zulu Warrior, was a pioneering member of the roots reggae Jamaican sound system in London. The producer had only recently announced a new tour date for August 19 in the days before he passed.
The news was shared by Horsepower Productions’s Benny Ill, with a Twitter post earlier this afternoon. It was accompanied by a photo of Shaka DJing, and was captioned: “Rest In Power Jah Shaka”. His cause of death is currently unknown.
Dubstep producer the Bug wrote: “So sad to read Jah Shaka has departed this planet … Rest in peace. A heroic figure who kept Dub alive, when few cared … I spent many all nighters being transfixed by his passion and selections.”
He was born in Clarendon in Jamaica and was based in southeast London since 1956. He kickstarted his successful career as an operator on the Freddie Cloudburst Sound System.
He moved to London in 1956, where he experienced the harsh racism associated with the Windrush generation.
The icon described the environment in an interview quoted by In Sheep’s Clothing Hi-Fi, and said: “In the Windrush time, in London, on the doors of the houses, there were signs saying ‘no Blacks, no Irish and no dogs.”In the 1950s and 1960s in London, there were house parties – 50, 60 people with only record players.
“It helped families know other families, which was important at that time because the people were forced to be segregated.”
But, by the 1970s, the legendary musician was operating his own sound system, The Jah Shaka Sound System, producing many iconic reggae tracks and running his own record label – Jah Shaka Music.
And in 1980, Jah Shaka starred as himself in the movie Babylon, which portrayed the racial tensions he battled when he moved to the UK. His work was recognised for attracting an audience from all backgrounds and ages – which he claimed to be the purpose of his Rastafarian beliefs.
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