Mutabaruka (born Allan Hope, 26 December 1952, Rae Town, Kingston, Jamaica) is a Jamaican Rastafarian Dub Poet. His name comes from the Rwandan language and translates as “one who is always victorious”. He lives in Potosi District, St. James, with his partner and their two children.

Mutabaruka has established himself as both a literary and musical giant, both in Jamaica and abroad, and is arguably one of Jamaica’s most respected wordsmiths, dub poets and broadcaster. His poems have given voice to a nation and helped forge an entirely new genre of music, dub/rhythm poetry. Revolutionary, fiery, scathing, and stinging, Mutabaruka’s words are as potent on paper as on CD, and so the literary community needed to create a new term just for his works – Meta-Dub.

Mutabaruka’s first book, The First Poems, was launched in the 1980s and took off well. A sequel entitled The Next Poems was launched on 10 March 2005. The “double-barrelled” books are well known to the Jamaican community as well as other dub-poets. In the spring of 2007, Mutabaruka had the chance to teach African American studies at Merritt College. His time there further showed through in his poems.

He has cut singles with the late Dennis Brown and Luciano, hosts a hugely popular Jamaican radio show on the IRIE-FM station, and many of Mutabaruka’s songs recorded with other artists are brought together on the In Combination album (2006) which features songs with reggae greats such as Freddie McGregor, Cocoa Tea, Sugar Minott, Marcia Griffiths, Tony Rebel and more. Mutabaruka is the Musical Director of Caribbean Fashion Week.

Mutaburka, the Actor, has been featured in movies; One Love (2004); Land of Look Behind (1982); and starred as Shango in the powerful film about Maafa – the African Holocaust, Sanfoka (1994).

On 20 February 2010, Muta was honored by the National Centre for Youth Development (NCYD) and the Rotaract Club of Mandeville for over 30 years of outstanding work in the field of the arts. Also, later on in 2010, Muta was recognized by Senegal. In all of Mutabaruka’s work, he never forgets to give back to the people who influence him. On 28 September 2010, Muta recited a tribute poem in honour of Lucky Dube, whose music liberated the oppressed. Recently, Muta spoke at the First Jamaica Poetry Festival on 17 August 2011 in honour of Marcus Garvey and Louise Bennett. Leaving a mark on people who oppose you is very hard to do. Mutabaruka does this with extraordinary power, poetry. On the final day of the Rastafari Studies Conference, Muta was examined as a Icon by the professors of the West Indies.

D ROK Continues to grow and carry out the recent given title “The Conscious Lyricist”. “I decided to go with the conscious style after I began to read on Hip Hop History, and listening to KRS ONE Lectures, then later finding my way in 2009 in The Islam religion” says D’ROK. Since being active on the conscious Hip Hop Scene D’ROK has been able to release songs that speak on “the effect
of drug-abuse and gang violence in the lives of the youth in his community, and even his personal experiences in South Central, Los Angeles. His efforts to speak up on the reality of the living conditions in his neighborhood, eventually got him on a record with Los Angeles
Lakers Forward “Ron Artest” on a song titled “Too Fly’.

D’ROK is currently working on his second album “Bringing in a New World” set to be released on iTunes on May 25th, 2012 and in June 2012 on CD.

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