Linton Kwesi Johnson

A political writer and activist who delivered his poetry to dubby, reggae backbeats, Linton Kwesi Johnson was a proud voice for British-Jamaicans amid tensions over race riots, Thatcherism and recession in the 1980s. Born in Chapelton, in rural Jamaica, Johnson moved to London in 1963 and ran poetry workshops for the Black Panthers whilst still in school, before studying sociology at Goldsmiths University, London and penning articles for the socialist paper Race Today and music reviews for NME and Melody Maker magazines. His debut album Dread Beat An' Blood (1978) captured the inner city problems and his track All Wi Doin' Is Defending became a passionate rallying call. In the wake of the 1981 Brixton Riots his work on albums Forces Of Victory (1979), Bass Culture (1980) and Making History (1983) became acutely relevant and potent. His use of Jamaican slang and the rhythm of his words gave him a distinctive style and, although his records became more infrequent after 1991's Tings An' Times, he went on to influence a new generation of socially conscious hip hop stars and became the first black poet to be published alongside John Betjeman and John Keats in the Penguin Modern Classics series.

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