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Gavin B. · 07-01-2009, 07:06 AM

Mutabaruka - The Dub Poet Laureate

Mutabaruka is the nightmare of every white, middle class, god fearing Christian. Muta has a larger than life, confrontational personae even when he's off stage. In 1984 I was assigned by the Channel Club to be Muta's driver for his one night appearance at the Channel in Boston.

It was his first appearance in the United States and Muta came off the Air Jamaica flight at Logan Airport, wearing Rastafarian robes and was barefoot. He certainly turned a lot of heads as we walked from the terminal to my car in the parking garage. I'm still not sure how Muta ever got onto an international flight without any shoes.

As I drove him from the airport to his hotel destination in Cambridge, between Central Square and Harvard Sqaure, a Cambridge cop began following us, and at the bottom of Dunster Street he pulled me over for running a stop sign. The only problem was that there was no stop sign at the intersection and Muta proceded to get into a heated argument with the cop on my behalf to keep the cop from issuing me a ticket.

A crowd of Harvard students began to gather around the scene and soon it turned into a bit of a protest spectacle led by Muta. The cop radioed the station house and reinforcements and a German shephard attack dog were used to disperse the mob of about 50 Harvard students.

The upshot of the story was that Muta spent his first night in the USA in jail on peace disturbance charges and I ended up bailing him out at 8 am the next morning, using the services of my own personal attorney, who couldn't figure out what the hell was going on with this dreadlocked wild man who dressed in robes and wore no shoes. Meanwhile the cops at the station house were acted as if they captured the black version of the Unabomber and had plastered copies of the Mutabaruka concert posters they confiscated from my car all over the station house like trophies.

The fact that Mutabaruka exists is a crime in the mind of a lot of white folks and Muta was never reluctant to point out that grim reality to his audiences, and encourge them to confront the racism of Babylon.

Dis Poem - Mutabaruka Muta performs Dis Poem on Def Jam Poetry.

Johnny Drughead - Mutabaruka Johnny Drughead is an update of the classic reggae song Johnny Too Bad in which Johnny moves from Jamaica to NYC and falls into drug traffiking.

07-01-2009, 07:06 AM	#33 (permalink)
Gavin B. Model Worker Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 1,248	Mutabaruka - The Dub Poet Laureate Mutabaruka is the nightmare of every white, middle class, god fearing Christian. Muta has a larger than life, confrontational personae even when he's off stage. In 1984 I was assigned by the Channel Club to be Muta's driver for his one night appearance at the Channel in Boston. It was his first appearance in the United States and Muta came off the Air Jamaica flight at Logan Airport, wearing Rastafarian robes and was barefoot. He certainly turned a lot of heads as we walked from the terminal to my car in the parking garage. I'm still not sure how Muta ever got onto an international flight without any shoes. As I drove him from the airport to his hotel destination in Cambridge, between Central Square and Harvard Sqaure, a Cambridge cop began following us, and at the bottom of Dunster Street he pulled me over for running a stop sign. The only problem was that there was no stop sign at the intersection and Muta proceded to get into a heated argument with the cop on my behalf to keep the cop from issuing me a ticket. A crowd of Harvard students began to gather around the scene and soon it turned into a bit of a protest spectacle led by Muta. The cop radioed the station house and reinforcements and a German shephard attack dog were used to disperse the mob of about 50 Harvard students. The upshot of the story was that Muta spent his first night in the USA in jail on peace disturbance charges and I ended up bailing him out at 8 am the next morning, using the services of my own personal attorney, who couldn't figure out what the hell was going on with this dreadlocked wild man who dressed in robes and wore no shoes. Meanwhile the cops at the station house were acted as if they captured the black version of the Unabomber and had plastered copies of the Mutabaruka concert posters they confiscated from my car all over the station house like trophies. The fact that Mutabaruka exists is a crime in the mind of a lot of white folks and Muta was never reluctant to point out that grim reality to his audiences, and encourge them to confront the racism of Babylon. Dis Poem - Mutabaruka Muta performs Dis Poem on Def Jam Poetry. Johnny Drughead - Mutabaruka Johnny Drughead is an update of the classic reggae song Johnny Too Bad in which Johnny moves from Jamaica to NYC and falls into drug traffiking. Last edited by Gavin B.; 03-16-2010 at 04:59 PM.