WORD SOUND HAVE POAWH!
D’BI combines early Jamaican dub with dancehall reggae, as well as Afrobeat, punk and performance art. That’s a thick blend of styles, and we haven’t even gotten to the hip-hop yet… Recited over guitar, backing tracks or both, this new dub poetry bridges musical traditions from folk to funk and beyond with the wider art world; as D’BI performs, the feel is of cultures converging with the force of a tidal wave. It’s solo musical poetry, simply put, and with it the artist seeks to transform our concepts of normality. Intersectionality is the keyword, musically and otherwise—the discourse is political, and it’s powerful enough to move your heart and change your mind.
[O]ne of those human dynamos that leave the rest of us with jaw hanging in rapt amazement… Every poem-song is an education in a world that is still being born.
—Vincent Tinguely