When I first heard Linton Kwesi Johnson’s words, they came flowing through a nearly blown-out sound system in a Los Angeles punk club in the early ’80s. I could barely hear him, but something about ...

The roots of hip-hop run deep, and among the deepest branches remains Linton Kwesi Johnson, the Jamaican-born, British-raised poet, writer, and performer often hailed as the father of dub poetry. On ...

Benjamin Zephaniah, who has died of a brain tumour aged 65, was among Britain's most prominent poets. Referred to as the "people's laureate", he was once voted the country's third-favourite poet, ...