Sublime

Sublime was an American dub-punk band whose multi-platinum album came too late for their vocalist to enjoy; he had died of an overdose and the band had split before it was even released.

Having established themselves as a popular band by playing in their local area, Bradley Nowell created Skunk Records and released the popular cassette Jah Won’t Pay the Bills (1991). Before they could tour with the new music, Bud Gaugh decided to seek help for his drug problems and plans to tour had to be scrapped. They went into the studio instead and 40 Oz. to Freedom (1992) was the result. It took some time, but a year later “Date Rape”, a track from the album, was picked up by radio stations. This led to the band signing with MCA Records and the album soon charted. By this point Nowell was already addicted to heroin, reflected in the lyrics of “Pawn Shop” and “Pool Shark”. Robbin’ the Hood was independently released in 1994.

Irrespective of his growing habit the group started to record their next album for MCA. But in 1996, before it could be released, Nowell died of a heroin overdose. When Nowell died, Sublime died too. The album, Sublime, was released posthumously. It was considered a great success and contained several hit singles including “What I Got”, “Santeria”, “Wrong Way” and “Doin’ Time”. It eventually received five platinum certifications.

The other two band members went on to create the band Long Beach Dub Allstars, which ran until 2002.