Oku Onuora

Biography

Oku Onuora surfaced on the reggae scene in 1978 with the dub poet anthem "Reflections In Red". He debuted with the excellent Pressure Drop set which is regarded as one of dub poetry's classic sets. His style is quite similar to Mutabaruka, but his lyrics are uncomprimising, dealing with social issues and consciousness.

Along with Mutabaruka and Linton Kwesi Johnson, Oku Onuora is pre-eminent as defining the genre "Dub Poetry". Oku Onuora promoted the designation "dub poetry" in 1979, meaning "a poem that has a built-in reggae rhythm ... one can distinctly hear the reggae rhythm coming out of the poem". In addition, however, Onuora has proven himself to be a major player in the ranks.

Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.