Dread Beat an' Blood is the debut album by British reggae band Poet and the Roots released in 1978 on the Front Line label.

The "Poet" is dub poet Johnson and "the Roots" are Dennis Bovell, Lloyd "Jah Bunny" Donaldson, Desmond Craig, Winston Curniffe, Everald Forrest, Floyd Lawson, John Varnom, Lila Weathers and Vivian Weathers.

Most of the tracks are based on poems that first appeared in Johnson's 1975 book of poetry Dread Beat an' Blood.

This album was the result of collaboration between Johnson, who had been active as a journalist and reggae critic as well as a poet, and musician and producer Bovell.

Johnson was the first person to accurately describe the situation of the black British youth in the inner cities in the late 1970s and early 1980s.