Africa–Caribbean connections
Beyond the Handshake
Explore what meaningful educational cooperation between Africa and the Caribbean requires: shared authority, practical access, and accountability beyond the announcement.
The Deep Dives collection
Articles worth spending time with
Reggae’s story reaches beyond the stage. This collection brings together cultural analysis, music-rights reporting, legal trackers, practical listening guides, and artist biographies—with attention to the people and communities behind the sound.
Listening & learning
The Roots Reggae Listening Guide
A practical route through artists, albums, messages, and makers. Follow listening pathways, read the credits, and use a worksheet to deepen your attention.
Start here
Welcome to Reggae Dread
Get to know Reggae Dread’s living archive and find your way into its history, culture, messages, and featured series.
Artist biography · 12-part series
Burning Spear: A 12-Part Biography Series
Follow the life and music of Winston Rodney through a long-form biography series, from his Jamaican beginnings to his wider cultural influence.
Jamaican music rights · Package
Shabba Ranks Publishing Rights Package
Start with the complete package: a rapid legal explainer, a publishing-versus-masters chart, and a continuing docket tracker for the Greensleeves dispute.
Jamaican music rights · Legal explainer
Shabba Ranks Wants His Publishing Back
Understand what the Greensleeves lawsuit alleges, how U.S. copyright termination works, why work-made-for-hire status matters, and why publishing is not the same as owning a master recording.
Jamaican music rights · Docket tracker
Shabba Ranks v. Greensleeves: Continuing Docket Tracker
Follow service, responses, motions, orders, and any final disposition through dated entries that separate allegations, filings, and judicial decisions.
Jamaican music rights · Practical toolkit
The Distributor-Proof Toolkit: UMG, DistroKid & Jamaican Artists
Understand the UMG–DistroKid lawsuit and prepare an ownership, sample, metadata and AI-provenance evidence pack. Includes a free downloadable release checklist.
Caribbean history · Pan-African thought
Walter Rodney: Groundings, African Liberation and the Struggle for People’s Power
Explore the Guyanese historian’s life, his groundings with Rastafari, his analysis of African underdevelopment, and the struggle for people’s power in Guyana.
Caribbean history · Reggae & liberation
Caribbean Black Power and the Political Roots of Reggae
Explore how Rastafari, Walter Rodney, Garveyism, and Caribbean Black Power connected struggles for dignity and freedom with reggae's political expression.
Read the full Deep DiveProducers & Cultural Economics
Sonia Pottinger: The Producer, the Catalogue and the Work Behind Jamaican Music
Follow Sonia Pottinger’s work with Marcia Griffiths, Culture and Sonya Spence. Explore production, catalogue preservation and the difference between credits, rights and documented income.
ARTICLE 12 · AFRICAN HISTORYConquest · Enslavement · Resistance
Africa and the Trans-Saharan Trade: Conquest, Enslavement and Resistance
Follow the caravan networks that carried gold, salt, knowledge, and captives. Explore African states, the invasion of Songhai, Ahmad Baba’s legal arguments, and the struggle for freedom.
Read the Deep DiveContinue the journey
Move from the written story into music, conversation, and structured learning.