I dreamt last night I saw Joe Hill alive. I said, 'but Joe you're ten years dead.' 'I never died' said he, 'I never died.'

Those lines, taken from the 1910 song, The Ballad of Joe Hill, a song about bravery, commitment, and personal sacrifice, make a fitting tribute to Joseph 'Culture' Hill. In his own life as an entertainer, he was never content with the life of lights, glitter, and glamour. Instead, he conducted himself as a teacher, healer, and spiritual leader urging his fans the world over to seek a more balanced society. A society based on righteousness, respect for human dignity, equal opportunity, and social morals.

While Hill and Culture's style certainly owed much to the influence of the early Wailers and Burning Spear, it was never a case of imitation. Nor was Hill or the group ever obsessed with the latest trend. Instead, with his instinctively primeval vocal style, Joseph was able to position Culture as one of reggae's pre-eminent roots groups, performing in that churchical style informed by both Pentecostal and Rastafarian lamentation and praise song tradition. His music, like a sermon from the best village preacher, was delivered with a sense of mocking irony, though never without wit and accompanied by body language to boot. At the same time, however, Culture's music was laced with powerful spiritual, social and political messages delivered with conviction and sincerity.

Along with Albert Walker and Kenneth Dayes, Hill recorded his Garvey-inspired hit When The Two Sevens Clash for the Joe Gibbs label and immediately made a powerful impact on the local scene. Hill cast a grim shadow over the entire island by invoking Garvey's prophecy and a bit of folk philosophy in this apocalyptic song. When The Two Sevens Clash remains a true classic from a period of Jamaican art represented by the high standard of artists it produced and the quality of their creative output across genres.

Culture also recorded several albums for lone female producer Sonia Pottinger, the best-known singles among them being the anti-violence song Stop The Fussing And Fighting. Other big songs by Culture included Natty Never Get Weary, and International Herb. Over the years, songs like Down In Jamaica [Where Garvey comes From], Zion Gate, and This Train, all benefited from Hill's heartfelt and intuitive emotion. Of course, these types of songs were both popular and important because they were also in the West African Griot tradition of praising our heroes, while at the same time ridiculing those who digressed and involved themselves in folly and social debasement.

Culture, in recent years, may have been taken for granted in Jamaica, indeed even considered old school. Internationally, however, the group was well appreciated, especially in Europe and Africa where they played concerts and festivals in large halls, parks and stadiums, while at the same time maintaining a strong presence on the club and festival circuit in North America.

Hill provided social commentary at its best, since one could simultaneously dance to his songs captivating rhythms and contemplate what is considered in reggae circles as the songs' culturally uplifting messages.

Throughout his career, Natty Culture Hill 'never get weary.' His energetic performances were matched by his steadfast commitment to help build a morally impartial world in which all enjoyed equality and justice.

Hill's recent passing broadens the void left by first and second-generation Jamaican pop and roots artists. However, the struggle continues with the dedicated commitment to the tradition of music as a weapon for achieving social equity, spiritual uplift, and historic knowledge exemplified by elder artists like, the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari, Skatalites, Bunny Wailer, Burning Spear, Israel Vibration, The Congos, Big Youth and others. It is a tradition embraced by the likes of Capleton, Bush Man, Sizzla, and Luciano, leading lights among the younger generation of artists on a conscious path.

At Hill's farewell wake at the Ranny Williams Center last Friday night, many of these artists came out to pay final respects to a colleague and cultural soldier who had made the transition from the physical world to the world of the ancestors. Joseph 'Culture' Hill (like Drummond, Marley and Tosh) was truly a giant of reggae music and a champion of international humanity; it's gratifying to know that through his recordings (audio and video), the work of chroniclers, and the collective memory, that legacy and the man Joseph Hill will live. On his final journey from this life, Joseph 'Culture Hill, in true chieftain tradition would likely say to those left behind, this train is bound for glory, but you must continue the struggle. To which we would bravely but solemnly chant, Aluta Continua.

Trousers in Denim

Cream of the 'Crop'

Cheeky's World