Levi Roots

Long before a sauce bottle made him a household name, Keith Valentine Graham was a sound system figure in London, chanting on the mic and selecting records in the roots reggae scene. Born in Clarendon, Jamaica, he was raised by his grandmother before joining his parents in Britain at eleven, and he now works as a chef, author, broadcaster and businessman under the name Levi Roots. His music stays rooted in social consciousness and roots reggae, a sound which he has carried from the sound system circuit into kitchens and studios.

His 1981 discomix Voice of the Poor-Poor Man Story, cut with Fred Locks and Creation Steppers, preceded a later breakthrough with Free Your Mind, which Jah Shaka's sound played out regularly in 1997. He has shared stages with James Brown and Maxi Priest, and was nominated for Best Reggae Act at the 1998 MOBO Awards. In February 2007 his Reggae Reggae Sauce featured on the fourth series of Dragons' Den, where Peter Jones and Richard Farleigh offered £50,000 for a 40% stake. Sainsbury's announced it would stock the sauce in 600 stores. Later work included Caribbean Food Made Easy on BBC2 and Celebrity Big Brother in 2024.