LKJ can be regarded as the godfather of DUB Poetry. Where ones like Mutabaruka and Oku Onuora took the genre further and expressed their faith as Rastafarians, LKJ is not a Rasta. He's not anti-Rasta, either. He is a born Jamaican, who came to the UK in the 1960's. There he joined the Black Panthers and started working with a group of musicians called Rasta Love. In the 1970's, he released a collection of poems and a movie with the title Dread Beat an' Blood, which also became the title of his debute album.

LKJ deals with consciousness. His poems are about some thing. About being Black in Britain. In the time when the poetry was written and the music released, the situation was -and still is- very tense in Europe and the UK when it comes to racism and discrimination.

That's why LKJ should be heard. Although his poetry is intelectual, you do not have to be a professor in order to overstand just what LKJ is saying. He is telling it like it is, and even after 25+ years, there's still not one single word obsolete.

The same thing can be said about the music as well. 

Together with Dennis Bovell, LKJ has set the standard for DUB poetry. Dread Beat an' Blood, Forces of Vicktry and now this third one called BASS CULTURE are all high quality recordings and the music is striktly heavyweight Roots Reggae.

If you care for crucial Reggae, if you want your collection to have crucial releases that had an impact, you just can't afford not to have at least one LKJ album. 

One final detail, which may be interesting to know: it was LKJ who got the webmaster of this website into Reggae, back in the early 1980's. So it is obvious, the Dubroom highly and deeply recommends Linton Kwesie Johnson, especially his first albums.