What the songs are actually saying
Roots reggae is often heard as pleasant music with a faint spiritual atmosphere. Listen to the words and it is something much more specific, and much less comfortable.
Culture
The wider story: faith, language, politics and the places the music lives.
Nyabinghi, the drums underneath everything
Before the bass line there was a hand drum, a chant and a fire that burned for days. The oldest layer of this music is also the one most listeners never hear.
The word over the riddim
Dub poetry put spoken verse in Jamaican language over a bass line and asked to be judged as literature. Britain in the late 1970s is where it did its hardest work.