Lucky Philip Dube (pronounced duu-beh;[1] 3 August 1964 – 18 October 2007) was a South African reggae musician and Rastafarian.

At the age of eighteen, Dube joined his cousin's band, the Love Brothers, playing Zulu pop music known as mbaqanga.

[8] In 1986, together with his cousin Richard Siluma, Dube released the Afrikaans album Die Kaapse Dans, followed by the EP Help My Krap, the same year, under the name Oom Hansie.

[9] On the release of his fifth album, Dave Segal (who became Dube's sound engineer) encouraged him to drop the "Supersoul" element of the name.

Drawing inspiration from Jimmy Cliff[10] and Peter Tosh,[7] he felt the socio-political messages associated with Jamaican reggae were relevant to a South African audience in an institutionally racist society.

Keen to suppress anti-apartheid activism, the regime banned the album in 1985, because of its critical lyrics, such as in the song "War and Crime".

It achieved Platinum sales status and established Dube as a popular reggae artist in South Africa, in addition to attracting attention outside his homeland.

[10] He appeared at the 1991 Reggae Sunsplash (uniquely that year, he was invited back onstage for a 25-minute-long encore) and the 2005 Live 8 event in Johannesburg.

He used the musical genre to frame his arguments about colonialism and the African slave trade, and how he felt that Africa should be reclaimed by the black race.

[14] On 18 October 2007, Lucky Dube was killed by armed robbers in Rosettenville, a Johannesburg suburb, shortly after dropping two of his seven children off at their uncle's house.

Police reports suggest he was shot dead by carjackers who did not recognise him; a state witness additionally claimed that he was targeted under the false notion that he was Nigerian.