Rock steady!
Desmond Dekker
July 16, 1941 – May 25, 2006
Best known outside Jamaica for The Israelites, Dekker’s music was instrumental in giving voice to the Black diaspora and the social, political and economic plights of the (post)colonies. The song was released four years after Jamaican independence from Britain and popularised in the UK, in part, by recent immigrants. His stories of resistance, combined with the energy and danceability of ska, were also popular with 60s youth cultures like rude boys, mods and, later, punks.