Benjamin Zephaniah: My six best albums – Bob Marley, James Brown and Bob Dylan

He also appeared on TV in Peaky Blinders. His autobiography The Life And Rhymes Of Benjamin Zephaniah (Scribner, £20) is out now and he tours from May 6.

BOB MARLEY & THE WAILERS: Catch A Fire (Tuff Gong/Island)

I grew up listening to ska and reggae so I felt proud that this was in mainstream record shops.

It’s a great example of consciousness-raising music with really good production.

I always thought of Marley as a poet and remember trying to catch every word.

BIG YOUTH: Screaming Target (Trojan)

He actually does scream on this. It’s really cool toasting [chanting over a rhythm] and the sound of my poetry is more influenced by his sound than by someone like Marley.

I love adding groans or something between the words in my poetry, which he does.

JAMES BROWN: The Payback (Polydor)

We used to do dancing competitions when Sex Machine was big but this was not as upbeat as his other stuff.

I liked it just to be different. It was one of the first albums I bought with my own money.

I was always trying to work out what he was saying.

BOB DYLAN: Desire (Columbia/Sony)

I came to this late. I’d thought of him as a hippy but heard this at a friend’s house and the track Hurricane blew me away.

I had to check out the story and I found this was a white dude telling me about the trials and tribulations of a black man.

It is very different to reggae and took me somewhere else.

RUTS: The Crack (Virgin)

Their track Babylon’s Burning has so much energy.

Rastafarians use the word Babylon to symbolise the oppressive system and I realised that the best of punk was doing what reggae was doing, talking about how we live and telling it as it is – just at a different speed.

TERRY HALL & MUSHTAQ: The Hour Of Two Lights (Honest Jon’s)

A beautiful album. I used to know The Specials years ago but Terry was a bit of a loner.

I called him when this came out to tell him I loved it and we’ve become friends. It’s unusual, a mixture of traditional Arab music and modern, and it suits his voice.