MUTABARUKA RAILS

Mutabaruka, the strikingly dramatic Jamaican poet who raps his stringent messages over heavy reggae “riddims,” informed the packed-to-the-rafters crowd at the Music Machine on Friday that “De system is a fraud.” Backed by a five-piece band that was as earthy, funky and sloppy as reggae bands get, Mutabaruka railed about such topics as the evils of cocaine and injustice in South Africa.

But it was disturbing that this self-styled beacon of truth also saw fit to defend African pride by denigrating homosexuals as the creators of AIDS. Mutabaruka is a powerful performer, but he hasn’t lived up to his initial iconoclastic promise as Jamaica’s foremost “dub” poet. And it’s unfortunate that his words of self-righteous anger often contained stereotypes of whites as evil oppressors and blacks as people born to suffer.

The second-billed Itals, a vocal trio, offered a blend of reggae, doo-wop and R&B; that was often transcendently beautiful.