Bass Culture 
(for Big Yout)
1
muzik of blood
black reared
pain rooted
heart geared
all tensed up
in di bubbe an di bounce
an di leap an di weight drop
it is di beat of di heart
this pulsing of blood
that is a bubblin bass
a bad bad beat
pushin against di wall
whey bar black blood
an is a whole heappa
passion a gather
like a frightful form
like a righteous harm
giving off wild like is madness
[. . .]
5
culture pulsin
high temperature blood
swingin anger
shattering di tightened hold
the false hold
round flesh whey wail freedom
bitta cause a blues
cause a maggot suffering
cause a blood klaat pressure
yet still breedin love
far more mellow
than di soun of shapes
chanting loudly
[. . .]
7
for di time is nigh
when passion gather high
when di beat jus lash
when di wall mus smash
an di beat will shiff
as di culture alltah
when oppression scatta
– Linton Kwesi Johnson
Early this month, the cities of London, England and Kingston, Jamaica mourned the loss of Jean “Binta” Breeze (died August 4, 2021). Last week, the worldwide literary community hailed the birthday, on August 24, of poet Linton Kwesi Johnson. Both were rites of passage, celebrating different chapters in that deep brand of West Indian literature known as dub poetry. It is a form that has been both brooding and celebratory, but marks the influential blend of the oral and the scribal in the literature.
