Rastafarians Sweep GBOB World Title

By Ben Liew  •  02 Mar 2011 in News

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Yeah mon! Jamaican reggae band Dubtonic Kru won the championship title at the Global Battle of the Bands (GBOB) 2010 World Finals at KL Live recently. And with beautiful dreads like that, the spirits of Bob Marley and Emperor Haile Selassie are bound to be smiling.

The groovy quintet skanked out 16 other finalists to take home the grand prize of a USD100,000 band development package and recognition as the “Best New Band in the World.”

Dubtonic Kru comprises of Kamau (precussionist), Deleon White (drummer), Strickland Stone (bassist), Luke Dixon (keyboardist), and Omar Johnson (guitarist-vocalist). Founders Deleon and Strickland had been making music together for 11 years before officially forming the band in 2007.

Hailing from Kingston Town, they are known for their funky and uplifting songs on life and love. While the band calls its music reggae contemporary dub, you wouldn’t be far off referring to it as psych dubstep or even trance dub for that matter.

Whatever your genre pickings may be, Dubtonic Kru are wonderful to watch live. They’re colourful, cool and have funky bassist (dressed in red when we saw him – from the sunnies to the kicks) who does a reggae-d version of the ol’ Chuck Berry duck-walk.

Over 30 countries competed in GBOB 2010 but only 17 made it to the World Finals which was held in KL for the first time since being founded in 2004 in London. Runner ups in the competition were Salvador (Russia), Shenaniganz (Germany), Sonsteek (South Africa), and Nope (Morocco).

For more on Dubtonic Kru, checkout their homepage.