Gabre Selassie

Kingston Dub Club

If you’re a reggae or dub music enthusiast hungry for information about the roots, culture, livity (way of life) and the inspiration behind these genres, it’s quite likely your research will lead you to Gabre Selassie. As the man who almost single-handedly pioneered the resurgence of authentic dub music and culture on the island, the humble, world-renowned deejay/producer is, to say the least, one of Jamaica’s most highly respected in reggae music, especially within the Rastafari community. With a musical career of well over 20 years from playing as a dancehall deejay to being taken under the legendary Augustus Pablo’s wing, he has always been on the pulse of what’s happening in the entertainment/creative industries. He’s also seen that circle (and the marijuana codes within it) gradually evolve into what it is today. Gabre is revered as a mentor for many budding reggae artistes and by everyone who has had the chance to see and experience his passion for dub firsthand.

He opened his home to the world a few years ago through the staging of his weekly event —Kingston Dub Club (KDC)—on Sundays where people can gather and listen to dub music in a refreshing alfresco space overlooking the city lights or tune in to the live stream via his Rockers Sound Station online location at www.rockerssoundstation.co … but it’s so much more than just a ‘rasta party’. Gabre’s home is and has always been a safe haven where people from all over the world can interact, be themselves, dress and dance as they please and truly let go, allowing the vibration of the music and the cohesive energy of the space to envelop them. Long before the days of decriminalization, anyone could, and still can, walk into the venue with a tall stalk of marijuana or a fat ‘spliff’ in hand and no one bats an eyelid – it’s not to say that anything goes, but the whole aura is very freeing, mystical and accepting.

It’s universally understood that in his presence, negativity is disallowed and all things good and positive are encouraged and embraced. Such is the vibe of Gabre Selassie and his 4/20 friendly Dub Club, a place that stimulates relaxation, meditation and perhaps even inspiration to embark on a new ‘livity’. Add to that his solid musical selections on a seriously impressive custom-built sound system to cement its place as the Jamaican Mecca of reggae music—and certainly one of the best places to smoke herb on the island. Gabre has earned his stripes over the years both as a musician and herbalist, so we naturally sought his authoritative angle on the role marijuana plays in social gatherings and music here in Kingston, Jamaica.

The 4/20 Interview

Gabre Selassie speaks on dub culture and marijuana heights

IRIE. Take us back to your first experience with marijuana…

Gabre Selassie. I went to a school party at about the age of 12, my school did just win a football competition… Ziggy Marley was on that team, we all went to the same school together. I already used to smoke cigarettes but Ziggy’s driver gave me a spliff and thinking back on it, it must have been Makka (read: very high-quality, potent strain). I smoked it all at once by myself like it was a cigarette – I never know nothing ‘bout herb at that time – and I already had a few drinks… it wasn’t a good experience; my head was spinning, I was watching the sky going in circles and if I leaned to one side it felt like all my organs were coming down on that side. My bredren carried me home and told me to close my eyes so he could tell my mother that I drank too much liquor.

IRIE. How did you go from that to becoming a marijuana connoisseur?

Gabre Selassie. …because of that bad first experience I never smoke herb again until about five years or more after that when me graduate from high school and was living abroad. I started to try it out but it wasn’t a social thing, I used to smoke by myself. Lock up in me room, toke up, watch Late Night TV with Arsenio Hall and crack the hell up. You know that laughing stage? The next few years were like that, laughing, and me just learn more along the way.

IRIE. You have had the honour of smoking with many musical greats like Augustus Pablo, who was a major source of inspiration for you, tell us about that.

Gabre Selassie. Yeah man, dem man deh smoke herb and smoke chalice continuously. I dunno if you know what a chalice is, but that’s when it’s smoked in a pipe… we don’t call it bong here. If you go into a church and see what the priest dem serve communion out of and the container they hold and swing with the incense, both of them, they call it a chalice.

Originally, that’s where the name comes from and since consuming the herb in this way has a spiritual connection with Rasta man, so we say this is our chalice, our communion. By the time I met Pablo, he already stopped smoking spliffs and was on to the chalice, so him used to tease me with my spliffs and call me Herbert Spliffington, yeah man. Being around him for hours upon hours, days upon days with him being a man who burn chalice straight, I smoked a lot from the chalice in those years. Between us and the musicians we’d go through a quarter or half pound of herb in one day.

IRIE. Seems herb and reggae music go hand in hand. Tell us more about marijuana and creativity in music.

Gabre Selassie. Well for us, we’d cut up a portion a herb and just burn chalice right through because when we doing music, there’s no time to stop every minute cutting up herbs so we would just do everything one time and get that out of the way cause when we start deal with music, is just music.

Pablo was a man who loved our local herb and we would buy that from the country, not the international hybrid strains, he never liked that at all because he said it never give him as good of a meditation as ours and it gives him good vibes to do the music. He would always try and hunt that type of herb. That is actually what people would consider ‘bush herb’ (read: low grade) now[adays], but that was the one he liked.

IRIE. What does marijuana represent for you now?

Gabre Selassie. When I was smoking herb as a youth it was more about feeling nice, I wasn’t dealing with it from a spiritual aspect, the transition came when we start trod Rasta, about 26 years ago. Learning more about the herbs, the reverence and respect through a Rasta man perspective brought about that spiritual transition rather than taking it as a party ‘let’s get stoned’ kinda vibes.

Living, learning and growing as Rasta where we use smoking herb as a meditational tool, you get to experience life differently and everything take on a different meaning, it opens you up to appreciate more the heavens, the glory of God and the glory of the universe… you know?

IRIE. Although Kingston Dub club was always considered a sacred smoking space, has the decriminalization affected your business positively?

Gabre Selassie. My place has always been my place and whether it’s legal or not, we smoke herb. I guess now we can see where a little more pressure ease off the place, but I see where they want people like me to jump through an extra hoop now… get the place registered as an exemption under Rastafari vibration.

IRIE. What do you think the future holds for marijuana in Jamaica and how do you feel about the recent decriminalization bill that was passed? Are you on the side of those who think the ‘bigger heads’ are only doing this now for their own economic benefit?

Gabre Selassie. t’s a great revolution that’s happened even though it’s not legal yet, but I feel the effects of the decriminalization. The pressure kinda eased up; people can smoke dem herbs unmolested, those days are over, so we glad for that. People are saying that the hypocritical bigger heads who jumping on the bandwagon now and will make all the money from it being legalized and they have a point, but I think there is enough for everyone to earn from. We’re getting a lot of new international attention from this too, but there’s a yin and yang to everything. At the end of the day if them free up the herb, everybody will benefit. I don’t think it’s gonna be that drastic, the small farmer will have his place as long as him have good herb, because good herb will always be needed.

IRIE. Where does KDC fit in and what do you want our IRIE readers to know about it?

Gabre Selassie. Well… I would apply to the board of Rastafari elders for the exemption for Kingston Dub Club and get that out of the way to be certified as an authentic Rasta space as the next step, but either way, the movement continues. Kingston Dub Club is the home of Gabre Selassie and his family which I opened up to the world. We using music as a meditation and medication to free we self and to heal we self as usual, I invite anyone who interested in that for themselves to forward, don’t just come for the hype because you’ve been hearing all about it. We keep it ‘rootical’, we keep it cultural, we keep it radical. Rasta music, revolution music every time.

IRIE. Give thanks for sharing space and reasoning with us, hopefully next time we can come burn a spliff with you when we talk again.

Gabre Selassie. Yeah man, or a chalice. Blessings.