Roots reggae is a spiritual Rastafari subgenre of Reggae music with lyrics that often include praise for Jah Ras Tafari Makonnen, Haile Selassie I Of Ethiopia ; the Emperor of Ethiopia . Recurrent lyrical themes include poverty and resistance to the oppression of government.
The heyday of roots reggae is usually considered the late 1970s, with singers such as Bob Marley , Peter Tosh , Johnny Clarke , Horace Andy , Barrington Levy , and Lincoln Thompson teaming up with producers such as Lee 'Scratch' Perry , King Tubby , and Coxsone Dodd . The experimental pioneering of such producers within often-restricted technological parameters gave birth to Dub , and is seen by some music historians as one of the earliest (albeit analogue) contributions to modern Dance Music production techniques.
