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‘His delivery cut through class barriers’: Moby, Mala and other musicians on working with Benjamin Zephaniah
On what would have been the late dub poet’s 67th birthday, his musical collaborators remember his warmth, invigorating words and reflections on the state of the world
Albums such as Rasta combined politically charged poetry with dub rhythms and studio effects, laying the cultural groundwork for UK genres such as trip-hop, jungle and dubstep. Zephaniah’s Rastafari-inspired wisdom, Natty’s roots-infused minimalism and Mala’s DMZ-era dubstep combine to raise the consciousness vibration in Word & Sound – an uplifting, intergenerational union years in the making. “So when I asked him to be part of a project I was doing, he wrote his verse immediately.” They recorded at Akala’s Ladbroke Grove studio in London then spent hours listening to Zephaniah’s stories – including his rightous refusal of an MBE.
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