Jah Shaka is considered the father of sound systems in the U.K. and hailed for his forward-thinking style with dub experimentalism incorporating electronic elements without losing any heaviness. Born in Jamaica around the 1950s, Jah Shaka moved to Southeast London with his parents at the age of eight.
Jah Shaka’s real name is not known to this day, a factor that increases the mystery around him. His stage name combined his spiritual interest in Rastafari with the 18th-century Zulu, King Shaka. He was also known as Zulu Warrior.
In the ’60s, Jah Shaka began playing in a live band and travelling as an operator with an unknown London sound system named Freddie Cloudburst. Shortly after, he set up his own sound system, and by the end of the 1970s, he had gathered a massive, devoted following thanks to his booming, dubwise steppers material and exclusive cuts on dubplates. He was at the helm of sound system culture in London, and after inaugurating his Jah Shaka King Of The Zulu Tribe label in 1980, he produced some of the scene’s most influential records.
Over the years, Jah Shaka’s label issued over 50 releases by U.K.-based artists such as Junior Brown, Sgt Pepper, Vivian Jones, and the Twinkle Brothers, as well as Jamaican artists such as Horace Andy, Bim Sherman, and Max Romeo. He also released many dub albums under his long-running Commandments of Dub series.
As Shrik Kotecha/DJ 745 wrote on reggaeville, “Jah Shaka’s sessions at legendary north London venue The Rocket during the ’80s and ’90s were a truly mystical and somewhat spiritual experience, and when he hit the echoes and effects… you were transported to another dimension.“
Jah Shaka continued to perform internationally well into the 2020s and became synonymous with roots reggae and dub sound system culture in the U.K. and across all continents. 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. He died on April 12, 2023.
Sources:
TiVo Staff allmusic.com
reggaeville.com
Photos from Jah Shaka Official on Facebook, by Stephen Mosco and by Lindsay Oliver Donald