How to Write Dub Poetry Lyrics

Dub poetry is a live wire that kicks truth into a groove. It lives where spoken word meets reggae and dub. It is political, personal, ritualistic, funny, and savage when it needs to be. This guide gives you everything to write dub poetry that hits the room in the chest and leaves the audience laughing and thinking at the same time.

Everything here is written for artists who want to write lyrics that work live and on record. Expect practical exercises, performance tactics, production tips, and real life scenarios so you know how to use these tools in a practice session, a live set, or a studio session. We will also cover cultural context and how to show respect when borrowing from Jamaican styles and language.

What Is Dub Poetry

Dub poetry emerged in Jamaica in the 1970s. It grew out of ska, rocksteady, reggae, and the dub studio tradition. Dub poetry is spoken word performed over reggae or dub rhythms. It is not just poetry recited with a beat. The poet uses rhythm, repetition, and the studio as a collaborator to create a sonic argument.

Key features

• Voice driven The performance of the poet matters as much as the words.
• Rhythmic interplay Lines come alive because they breathe with the bass and drums.
• Repetition and echo Phrases are ropes the audience can hold on to.
• Political and personal The work can be explicit in its politics and also confessional.
• Studio manipulation Delay, reverb, and other effects are part of the instrument.

Respect and Context

Dub poetry has roots in Jamaican culture. If you are not Jamaican, your first job is to learn. Study the work of Linton Kwesi Johnson, Mutabaruka, Oku Onuora, Jean "Binta" Breeze, and other originators. Listen to the rhythms that supported the poetry. Read histories. Collaborate with Jamaican musicians or poets when possible. Name your influences. Acknowledge lineage when you perform.

Real life scenario

If you are in a college open mic and you use Jamaican Patois without knowing the cultural weight of the words, you risk sounding like a stereotype. Instead, talk about your history and why the language matters to your story. Invite a Jamaican artist to co perform or to give notes. The audience will sense the difference.

Terms You Need To Know

• Patois Jamaican Patois is a creole language spoken in Jamaica. It has its own syntax and cadence. It is not slang. Use it with respect.
• Dub A production approach that emphasizes bass and drums and uses studio effects like delay and reverb as instruments.
• Riddim The instrumental backing track of a reggae or dub piece. Many songs share the same riddim.
• MC Stands for master of ceremonies. In Jamaican tradition, an MC can be a poet, an announcer, or a vocalist who engages the crowd. The term is widely used in hip hop as well.
• BPM Beats per minute. The speed of a rhythm. Reggae and dub often sit in a relaxed tempo range. Slower BPM gives space for words to breathe.

Write With a Live Ear

Dub poetry is designed to be heard. When you write, write for performance first and print second. This changes line length, punctuation, and word choice. Short lines let the voice ride the bass. Long sentences can be dramatic if performed with controlled breath.

Exercise: Speak Before You Write

1. Pick a topic like identity, migration, money, love, or police. Say a sentence about it aloud to a friend. Let it be messy.
2. Record that messy two minute monologue with your phone. Listen back and mark the moments that made your hair stand up.
3. Write three lines from those moments. Repeat them as a hook. That becomes the seed of your poem.

Choose a Riddim That Supports the Mood

Not every reggae beat will fit every poem. Riddims have personalities. A heavy one with a rolling bass suits political eruption. A sparse dub riddim with echo and space suits contemplative material. If you are working with a producer, tell them the emotional arc of your poem before you pick a riddim.

Pro tip

If you do not have a producer, buy or build a simple riddim. Use a clean kick, a deep bass, a snare or rim, and a skanking guitar or organ on the offbeat if you want a classic feel. If you want more dub, add tape echo on the snare and run vocal repeats into a reverb throw.

Structure and Flow

Dub poems are not identical to verse chorus songs. They move like speech and repeat like mantras. Here are common shapes you can steal and adapt.

Structure A: Hooked Rant

• Intro with a repeated line or phrase doubled by the riddim
• Verse that builds detail and tension
• Refrain where the hook repeats with studio effects
• Free verse eruption, loud and fast
• Return to hook with a new ending line

Structure B: Conversational Journey

• Quiet intro with spoken aside
• Three or four mini scenes that show the problem
• Reflection that asks the audience a question
• Refrain as a meditation
• Outro where the riddim drops and the voice remains

Use whichever structure matches the feeling. A political poem often benefits from a returning refrain. A confessional piece works with a gradual arc and a final caustic image.

Language, Diction, and Prosody

Prosody is how words naturally want to sit on music. If the stress of the word does not match the beat the phrase feels wrong. Dub poets manipulate prosody intentionally. They stretch syllables into echoes and chop phrases across beats to build tension.

Exercise: The Stress Map

1. Pick a short line you want to use. Speak it at normal speed and mark the stressed syllables.
2. Tap a slow four beat count and clap on the strong beats. Place your stressed syllables on those claps. If they do not fit, rewrite the line.
3. Experiment with stretching the last vowel to meet the downbeat. That breath creates gravity.

Real life example

Say the line I will survive more slowly. Now mark the stress points. The natural stress lands on will and vive. Move will to the offbeat and keep vive on the downbeat. The change makes the line feel like a turn instead of a march.

Imagery That Sticks

Dub poetry uses concrete images that the audience can see or feel. A single bright image can carry an entire verse. Use sensory detail to ground the politics. That is how big ideas become personal.

Before and after

Before I am angry about inequality.

After I count pennies into a coffee can and the rust eats the dates on each coin.

The after image gives the listener a camera to watch. That camera makes the feeling real.

Repetition as Weapon and Ladder

Repetition is central to dub poetry. It is not lazy. It is ritual. Repeated lines lock the audience into rhythm. Each repetition can shift slightly to add meaning. A line repeated three times gains weight. The third time it lands like a verdict.

Technique: Incremental Repetition

• State a line bluntly.
• Repeat with a small adjective added or a changed verb.
• Repeat a third time with a contrast that flips the meaning or raises stakes.

Example

We march. We march with memory. We march until the pavement remembers our names.

Performance Tips That Make the Crowd Lean In

Dub poetry is performance first. The same poem can be boring on the page and electrifying on stage because of delivery. Your voice is an instrument. Train it.

Breath Control Drill

1. Write a two line stanza that you want to deliver as a single breath.
2. Practice taking a steady inhalation from the belly, not the chest.
3. Time yourself so you can deliver the stanza without gasping.
4. Use shorter breaths for fast eruptions and a long controlled breath for statements that need to ring.

Dynamic Play

Use volume like color. Start a hook quiet and let the last repetition be loud. Whisper a line like it is a secret and then repeat it as a shout. The contrast will awaken the room.

Micro Interactions

Make eye contact. Point at a person in the crowd when you address their possible doubt. Pause for laughter. Let the riddim play through a repetition so the audience can clap. Dub poets build intimacy by making the audience feel seen.

Recording and Production Tips

In the studio, dub poetry can become a cinematic experience. Producers in dub tradition treat space as an instrument. You can do this with simple tools.

• Use delays creatively Send certain words into delay so they echo into the next bar. Set the delay time to match the tempo so the echo becomes part of the rhythm.
• Automate reverb Put a long reverb tail on the final word of a stanza and then cut it for the next line for contrast.
• Drop instruments Remove drums for a line to make the voice float. Bring the bass back hard to ground the next line.
• Call and response Layer doubled background vocal phrases that respond to the lead. That makes the track feel communal.

Technical note

BPM choices matter. Slow to mid tempo sometimes between sixty five and eighty five beats per minute works well for dub poetry because it gives space for diction and echo. If you need exact numbers, ask your producer about what feels natural for your voice.

Collaborating With Musicians

Working with a riddim and a producer is different than solo writing. The riddim will breathe and the producer will offer space. Learn to listen and adapt.

Real life scenario

You show up to a studio with ten pages of text. The producer plays a simple bass loop. Your task is not to perform everything at once. Pick three strong lines. The rest becomes texture. Let the riddim choose where silence is powerful. The studio will teach you to be economical.

Styles and Subgenres

Dub poetry is broad. Some poets are searingly political. Some are rooted in spiritual or personal observation. Some are playful and comedic. Find your lane but be honest about it.

• Political rant Direct and urgent. Use repetition and rhetorical questions.
• Lyric meditation Calm, internal, and reflective. Use echo and space in the production to match.
• Story poem Narrative driven. Use clear scene setting and characters and let the riddim follow the drama.
• Party dub Playful and chantable. Keep hooks short and rhythmic to make the crowd sing back.

Examples You Can Model

Below are three short exemplar snippets that show different approaches. Read them out loud with a slow steady riddim in your head and adjust the delivery to taste.

Example A: Political

They tally names like groceries and call it order. I count the missing like prayer. I count them in my pockets where numbers turn to questions. Question, answer, question. The streets know the steps better than the books.

Example B: Personal

My mother folds Sunday like a paper promise. She tucks the ache into the hem of a shirt and tells me we leave at dawn. We leave to find work. We leave to prove that love can carry luggage and still dance.

Example C: Playful Chant

When the bass drop, jump like rent day. When the drum call, clap the debt away. Hands up, hands clean, hands full of the beat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat until the night owes you nothing.

Editing Your Dub Poem

Editing for dub poetry is different than editing a page poem. You are editing for launch. Cut any line that slows the voice. Keep images sharp. Keep rhythm alive.

1. Read the poem aloud and record it. Listen back and mark the lines that drag.
2. Remove any abstract line that does not have a concrete image. Replace it with a scene or an object.
3. Test repetition out loud. If a repeated phrase does not feel more urgent each time you say it, either shorten it or make it louder.
4. Trim until the poem fits within the energy you want to sustain during performance. Less is often more.

Practice Drills That Actually Work

• One Breath Story Tell a tiny story in one breath. Build stamina and clarity.
• Echo Play Write one line and perform it six ways, each time with a different echo or delay setting. Adjust wording to match the echo.
• Audience Check Perform a three minute set to two friends and ask them to replay the line they remember. If they cannot, change your hook.

Do Not Do This

It is important to avoid cheap appropriation. Do not mimic accents or use Patois as a gimmick if you do not understand the words. Do not perform work that borrows sacred phrases without learning their meaning. Do not write like you are shouting at an enemy unless you are prepared to feel the aftershock of that anger when you perform repeatedly.

Instead, study, collaborate, credit, and perform with humility. When you are influenced by Jamaican culture, say so. That clarity is part of ethical artistry.

Common Mistakes and How To Fix Them

• Too many ideas Focus on one thread and let the poem circle it. Use repetition to deepen rather than list.
• Flat delivery Practice dynamic shifts and breath work. A flat line can be saved by a silence after it.
• Too dense production Leave space for the voice. If the riddim clutters your words, ask the producer to remove high frequencies in the midrange during delivery.
• Forgetting the audience Pause for reaction. A great dub poet treats the crowd like a collaborator.

How to Make a Dub Poem in One Hour

1. Pick a clear topic and write one sentence that says the heart of the piece.
2. Turn that sentence into a three word hook that you can repeat.
3. Write three short scenes that illustrate the hook. Each scene should be one or two lines.
4. Arrange scenes with the hook as return points. Practice delivering the piece with a slow riddim loop.
5. Record a phone demo and listen back. Cut any line that feels decorative.

Publishing and Sharing

Dub poetry works in live rooms and on records. When you record, label the track with production notes that explain where to place echoes and drops. Share stems if you want remixers to collaborate. When you release, credit the riddim creators and any sampled work.

Real life marketing tip

Post a video of a live take. Dub poetry translates visually because the performance is a crucial part of the art. Clips that show audience reaction will help your piece travel more than a static audio file.

Frequently Asked Questions

What makes dub poetry different from spoken word

Dub poetry is rooted in reggae and dub production. Spoken word is a broader category that can include slam poetry and performance pieces over silence or arbitrary beats. Dub poetry uses riddim as a partner and makes production choices like echo and bass central to the piece.

Can I write dub poetry if I am not Jamaican

Yes you can write dub poetry if you are not Jamaican. Do your homework. Learn about the culture and the history. Credit influences. When possible collaborate with Jamaican artists. Avoid cultural shorthand and lazy imitations. Authenticity comes from respect and from telling your own story through learned craft.

How long should a dub poem be

Live dub poems usually run from one to six minutes. The ideal length is whatever keeps the crowd engaged. If the poem runs longer than six minutes you need structural shifts or musical breaks to sustain attention.

What equipment do I need to record dub poetry

At minimum use a decent vocal microphone and a quiet room. A small audio interface and a DAW will let you add delay and reverb. For more dub authenticity use tape delay emulation and a warm preamp. But remember that performance matters more than gear. You can record a powerful piece on a phone with a good voice and a solid riddim.

Action Plan You Can Use Today

1. Listen to three dub poets and write down three delivery moves each uses that you liked.
2. Pick a topic and speak about it for two minutes while recording on your phone. Mark the moments that land.
3. Create a three line hook and a three scene verse structure. Practice with a slow riddim loop for twenty minutes.
4. Record a rough demo and ask two friends which line they remember. If they remember a line you did not want to be the hook then rewrite the hook.
5. Reach out to one producer or musician for feedback and offer to trade a session for a cup of coffee or a beer. Collaboration is how dub grows.

Get Contact Details of Music Industry Gatekeepers

Looking for an A&R, Manager or Record Label to skyrocket your music career?

Don’t wait to be discovered, take full control of your music career. Get access to the contact details of the gatekeepers of the music industry. We're talking email addresses, contact numbers, social media...

Packed with contact details for over 3,000 of the top Music Managers, A&Rs, Booking Agents & Record Label Executives.

Get exclusive access today, take control of your music journey and skyrocket your music career.

Unlock Instant Access