World of Jamaican Music

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An illustrated map of the creators of Jamaican music and how they are connected.

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Linton Kwesi Johnson

Artist. Reggae

Active
1978-present
Sunrise
August 24, 1952, Chapelton, Jamaica
Also known as
LKJ

Linton Kwesi Johnson is a Jamaican-British poet and recording artist whose work with the producer Dennis Bovell established dub poetry as a recorded form. When he first spoke of "dub poetry," it was the verbal artistry of the deejay I-Roy that he had in mind. His compositions begin with the bass ("That's the basis of my musical compositions, the bassline"), hummed along with the words, and Yohann Koshy writes of "his commanding, melodic drawl."

He was born in Chapelton, in the rural parish of Clarendon, on a Sunday, the day his Akan middle name, Kwesi, records. In 1963 he came to Brixton to join his mother, who had emigrated shortly before independence. He attended Tulse Hill School and read sociology at Goldsmiths' College. While still at school he joined the British Black Panther Movement, organized a poetry workshop inside it, and worked with Rasta Love, a group of poets and drummers. His poems first appeared in the journal Race Today, whose collective published his first book, Voices of the Living and the Dead, in 1974; Dread Beat An' Blood followed from Bogle-L'Ouverture in 1975. He held a C. Day Lewis Fellowship as writer-in-residence for the London Borough of Lambeth in 1977, then worked at the Keskidee Centre.

The record Dread Beat an' Blood (1978) was issued on Virgin's Front Line label under the group name Poet and the Roots, with Bovell in the band and Johnson producing alongside the bassist Vivian Weathers; Weathers and the drummer Winston Curniffe were school friends from Tulse Hill. Four albums for Island followed, produced with Bovell: Forces of Victory (1979), which reached number sixty-six in Britain, Bass Culture (1980), LKJ in Dub and Making History (1983). "Sonny's Lettah," an anti-sus poem, and "Inglan Is a Bitch" come from this run, and "Di Great Insohreckshan" answers the 1981 Brixton uprising. He founded LKJ Records in 1981, opening it with two singles by the Jamaican poet Michael Smith, and went on to release Jean "Binta" Breeze and the trumpeter Shake Keane. He toured with the Dennis Bovell Dub Band, and LKJ Live in Concert with the Dub Band (1985) was nominated for a Grammy.

Johnson worked with the Brixton-based Race Today collective through the 1980s, presented a ten-part series on Jamaican popular music, From Mento to Lovers Rock, on BBC Radio 1 in 1982 and 1983, and reported for Channel 4's The Bandung File from 1985 to 1988. His subject was secular and British rather than Rastafarian: the sus laws, policing, deaths in custody, and the position of black Britons. In 2002 he became the second living poet published in Penguin Modern Classics, with "Mi Revalueshanary Fren." He is an honorary fellow of Goldsmiths and holds a Silver Musgrave Medal from the Institute of Jamaica, the Golden PEN Award, honorary doctorates from Rhodes University and the University of the West Indies, the Order of Distinction (Commander, 2014) and the PEN Pinter Prize (2020). He is a trustee of the George Padmore Institute.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. Bradley credits Britain with dub poetry, "most prominently an intriguing, engaging hybrid of Dennis Bovell's dub rhythms and the Jamaican dialect verse of Linton Kwesi Johnson." Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 436.
  2. David Katz, "I-Roy," Guardian, January 26, 2000, https://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/jan/26/guardianobituaries.
  3. Tomaz Jardim, "Linton Kwesi Johnson Interview, Part One," Reggaeville, September 2, 2024, https://www.reggaeville.com/artist-details/linton-kwesi-johnson/news/view/linton-kwesi-johnson-interview-part-one/. Yohann Koshy, review of Linton Kwesi Johnson, Time Come, Guardian, via Inkl, accessed November 5, 2026, https://inkl.com/news/time-come-selected-prose-by-linton-kwesi-johnson-review-voice-of-a-generation.
  4. Wikipedia calls Kwesi "a Ghanaian name given to boys who, like Johnson, are born on a Sunday"; August 24, 1952, fell on a Sunday. "Linton Kwesi Johnson," Wikipedia, accessed October 2, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linton_Kwesi_Johnson.
  5. Wikipedia says he came with his father in 1963 to join his mother, "who had immigrated to Britain as part of the Windrush generation shortly before Jamaican independence in 1962." "Linton Kwesi Johnson." The Rough Guide gives his birth as 1952, Chapelton. Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 389.
  6. The LKJ Records biography: "Whilst still at school he joined the Black Panthers, helped to organise a poetry workshop within the movement and developed his work with Rasta Love, a group of poets and drummers." "Biography of Linton Kwesi Johnson," LKJ Records biography reproduced by The Roots Connection, accessed October 2, 2026, https://rootsconnection.ch/lkj/lkj_biography.htm. Bradley lists the Black Panther Youth League, the Black Parents Movement, the Black Students Movement, and the Race Today Collective among his memberships. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 437.
  7. The LKJ Records biography. "Biography of Linton Kwesi Johnson."
  8. The LKJ Records biography gives the 1977 fellowship and then the Keskidee post; Wikipedia instead places his Keskidee work in the early to mid-1970s. "Biography of Linton Kwesi Johnson." "Linton Kwesi Johnson."
  9. Discogs credits Johnson as producer, Blackbeard (Bovell) as engineer and mixer, and Winston Curniffe on drums. "Poet and the Roots, Dread Beat An' Blood," Discogs, accessed October 2, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/1648896. Wikipedia credits Vivian Weathers as co-producer on "Song of Blood" and says Weathers and Curniffe "were school friends of Johnson's." "Dread Beat an' Blood," Wikipedia, accessed October 2, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dread_Beat_an%27_Blood. Bradley says the partnership began when Johnson interviewed Bovell as a journalist. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 437.
  10. The LKJ Records biography lists the four Island albums and dates LKJ in Dub to 1981. "Biography of Linton Kwesi Johnson." The Official Charts Company gives peaks of 66 for Forces of Victory, 46 for Bass Culture, and 73 for Making History. "Linton Kwesi Johnson," Official Charts, accessed October 2, 2026, https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/3118/linton-kwesi-johnson/. Bradley notes that "Virgin and Island each released Linton Kwesi Johnson's dub poetry." Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 453.
  11. Bradley names "Inglan is a Bitch," "Di Great Insohreckshan," and "All Wi Is Doin Is Defendin" among the titles that "left nobody in any doubt about what was going on." Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 437. Wikipedia describes "Di Great Insohreckshan" as his response to the 1981 Brixton riots. "Linton Kwesi Johnson."
  12. The LKJ Records biography: "LKJ, Johnson's own record label, was launched in 1981 with two singles by the Jamaican poet Michael Smith, Mi Cyaan Believe It and Roots," and he "produced albums by the writer Jean Binta Breeze and by jazz trumpeter Shake Keane." "Biography of Linton Kwesi Johnson." The Rough Guide also notes Bovell's productions for the label. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 389.
  13. The nomination was for best reggae recording at the 29th Grammy Awards (1987). "Linton Kwesi Johnson," Grammy Awards, accessed October 2, 2026, https://www.grammy.com/artists/linton-kwesi-johnson/13662. The LKJ Records biography says the album was recorded at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. "Biography of Linton Kwesi Johnson."
  14. The LKJ Records biography says the radio series "went out on BBC Radio 1 in 1982 and was repeated in 1983." "Biography of Linton Kwesi Johnson."
  15. Bradley lists his subjects as "bourgeois blacks, third-rate schools, street life, general hard time in England and, of course, the police." Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 437.
  16. Wikipedia, citing Maya Jaggi in the Guardian, calls him "the second living poet, and the only black one" in the series; the article's body says "one of only three living poets." "Linton Kwesi Johnson."
  17. Wikipedia gives the Goldsmiths fellowship (2003), the Silver Musgrave Medal (2005), the Golden PEN Award (2012), the Order of Distinction (announced 2014), the Rhodes doctorate (2017), and the PEN Pinter Prize (2020). "Linton Kwesi Johnson." The Observer reported the UWI Doctor of Letters in 2021, and Johnson mentioned an earlier doctorate from Southampton. "Honorary Doctorate Leaves LKJ Speechless," Jamaica Observer, August 28, 2021, https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/art-culture/honorary-doctorate-leaves-lkj-speechless/.
  18. Wikipedia. "Linton Kwesi Johnson."

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