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Interview [published December 1998]
Linton Kwesi Johnson: Inglan Is A Bitch
Nancy Rawlinson finds legendary dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson has
not mellowed with age
Twenty years ago, a landmark album was released
in the UK. Dread Beat An’ Blood was Linton Kwesi
Johnson’s debut recording, the first time his political
poetry had been accompanied by the powerful beats of
reggae. This new form of music, revolutionary in terms
of language, content and style, came to be known as
‘dub poetry’ and Johnson is still the foremost and most
uncompromising practitioner of the art. Using the patois
of Jamaican speech, Johnson articulates the Black
British experience and uses the rhythms of reggae to
get his message across.
In the past, he has been called a prophet. “Yeah,
yeah, I don’t take these things seriously. I just think it’s
another media tag,” he says dismissively. “The music is
compatible with the poetry in so far as I am writing out
of the reggae tradition and some of the poems are written
are within the perimeters of the reggae structure.
And it’s oral poetry and oral poetry lends itself to the
rhythms of music.”
Considering his commitment and personal history,
perhaps Johnson’s success is no great surprise. His
whole life has been based around increasing political
awareness, fighting racism, and music. Born in Chapletown,
Jamaica, in 1952 he came to England at the
age of 11 to live with his mother in Brixton. It was an
traumatic experience, compounded by the hostility and
racism of Britain in the early 60s. Before long he had
joined The Black Panthers. “That’s where I learnt my
politics and about my history and culture,” he has said.
“That’s where I discovered black literature, particularly
the work of W.E.B. DuBois, the Afro-American scholar
who inspired me to write poetry.”
Armed with this new political awareness, Johnson
was laying the foundations of his future recording
career while he was still at school, with the poetry and
drumming group, Rasta Love. After graduating from
Goldsmiths’ College, he began to write in earnest and
his first collection of poetry was published in 1974.
Since then he has released three more books and a total
of 11 albums – but that’s not all. His achievements
outside of the studio have also been considerable. He
has edited the journal Race Today Review, made a radio
series on Jamaican music for the BBC, reported for
Channel Four’s race relation series The Bandung File
BUY Linton Kwesi Johnson music online from and
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