Linton Kwesi Johnson Vinyl Records
Although he hasn't released an album of new material in decades, and virtually retired from the live stage after his 1985 tour, Linton Kwesi Johnson remains a towering figure in reggae music. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, and raised in the Brixton section of London, Johnson invented dub poetry, a type of toasting descended from the DJ stylings of U-Roy and I-Roy. But whereas toasting tended to be hyperkinetic and given to fits of braggadocio, Johnson's poetry was more scripted and delivered in a more languid, slangy, streetwise style. His grim realism and tales of racism in an England governed by Tories were scathingly critical.