Jah Shaka
i-D
1987

Words by Apiento

I lived in Hither Green in South London for a while in the mid 90s. There was this house round the corner where you used to hear Dub coming from and it would sort of bounce off the walls above you. Coming home in a slightly altered state from wherever it was always a nice thing to stand outside for a while on a nice night and let the music run around above you. Me and the (then) mrs were coming home from somewhere on January 1st one year and there was a massive sound system being unloaded into that house on the corner. The blokes all had Jah Shaka spray painted in stencil on their T-shirts. It all made sense. One day we were walking past and I ran into Shaka on the street and told him I had this film that he was on which was called London Underground. They sort of ran around town one night filming various London nightspots like the Sandals club in Covent Garden, a Dirtbox do, some other things and this Shaka night. The Shaka footage was pretty great so I gave him the video as he'd never seen it. He was pretty grateful and the next day I got a knock at my front door and he was stood there with his friend holding this huge pile of his CDs to say thank you.

Here's the piece from i-D magazine in 1987...

JAH SHAKA, i-D Magazine
Mp2 (Mike Pickering & Martin Prendergast)
i-D
1987

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