The group Natty Dread was formed in 1992 by brothers Jean-Marie and Jean-Marc Imira. Shortly after its creation, Christine and Priscilla joined the group as singers and backing singers. In 1995, three years after their debut, Natty Dread released their first album Paradi Babylon.

That same year, the group took part in a competition organised by the Kan Kaliks association to select a reggae group from Reunion Island to open a tribute evening to Bob Marley.

Natty Dread won the competition and went on to perform at the Petit Stade de l'Est, opening for the late LuckyDube, an internationally renowned South African artist.

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In September 1999, the group marked a turning point in the Indian Ocean music scene by recording Fô Mi Koz, an Extra CD that was groundbreaking for its time. From 1997 to 2003, Natty Dread criss-crossed the Indian Ocean, giving a series of landmark concerts, notably in Mayotte, where they were invited by the Centre Mahorais d'Animation Culturelle (CMAC) and the Festival International de Musiques (FIM) to perform at the Stade du Baobab in Mamoudzou, in front of 15,000 spectators. In 2003, for the Fête de la Musique, the group wowed the Comorian public twice, first at the Alliance Française, then at the Palais du Peuple, where they played to an audience of over 25,000 in a concert broadcast live on Comorian television.

 

Their fourth album, Bamako Roots Reggae, was produced at the Humble Ark studio in Manjul, Mali, with the participation of musicians from Mali, Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire, such as Mamadou Seyba Doumbia on kora and Oumar Timbo on lead guitar, who added Mandingo and rock influences to the work. In 2006, their fifth album, Klandestin, was followed by a tour of Mayotte, opening for Steel Pulse and then Burning Spear in La Réunion.

At a reggae festival in Mayotte in 2006, the group met Jamaican sound engineers Stephen Stewart and Clayton Samuel Jr. In 2008, four members of Natty Dread travelled to Jamaica to record their new album at the legendary Harry J studio, where Bob Marley himself recorded. Renowned musicians such as Sly Dunbar, a drummer who had collaborated with Serge Gainsbourg, and Sticky Thomson, Ziggy Marley's percussionist, also took part in the album.

 

In 2024, Natty Dread are back with a new album entitled FOULNACOU. The album takes listeners on a profound musical journey, paying homage to key figures in the band's history and retracing their steps from the very beginning. Despite the many challenges they have had to overcome, their perseverance, passion and fighting spirit shine through in authentic, moving melodies.