The distinctive Rastafarian first-person pronoun, used in place of both "I" and "we".
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Regional slang from around the English-speaking world — British, Australian, Irish, Caribbean, Nigerian, Filipino, AAVE, and the hyphenated-English dialects that make the internet sound local.
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A Rastafarian: an adherent of the Rastafari movement, a Jamaican-born religious and cultural tradition that emerged in the 1930s among the descendants of enslaved Africans. The name comes from Ras Tafari Makonnen, the pre-coronation name of Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie I, whom Rastas regard as the messianic returned Christ and the living embodiment of Jah (God). Core practices and themes include the wearing of dreadlocks, an Ital (natural, often vegetarian) diet, the sacramental use of ganja for meditation, and a strong identification with Africa, repatriation and liberation from "Babylon" — the oppressive Western/colonial system. The word is also used loosely (and sometimes loosely enough to annoy actual adherents) to describe anyone with locs, reggae taste or a vaguely Afrocentric aesthetic.
Everything is good; positive vibes; in harmony. Foundational Rastafarian / Jamaican Patois greeting and feeling-state. "Everything irie."
A Rastafarian meeting.
The distinctive Rastafarian first-person pronoun, used in place of both "I" and "we". Rather than separating the speaker from others or from God, "I and I" (also written "InI" or "I-n-I") asserts the unity of the individual self with Jah and with all other Rastas: the second "I" represents the divine presence in the speaker, so every statement is at once personal and communal. The construction also extends to other pronouns ("I-man" for "me", "Iyaric" for the broader vocabulary), part of a deliberate reworking of English Rastas call Iyaric or "I-talk" to strip out colonial connotations. Common throughout roots reggae lyrics (Bob Marley, Burning Spear, Peter Tosh) and serious Rasta conversation; rarely used outside the movement except as an explicit nod to it.
In Caribbean usage, primarily a clipping of "dreadlocks" — the matted, rope-like hairstyle most strongly associated with Rastafari, where the locks are understood as a covenant of faith rooted in the Nazarite vow of Numbers 6. By extension "dread" is also used as a respectful, affectionate term of address for a Rastafarian or for any locs-wearing person of like-minded outlook ("alright, dread?"), similar to how "bredren" works between male peers. The word also keeps its older Rastafarian metaphysical sense of holy awe — the "dread" of righteousness in the face of Babylon — which is where the hair style took its name in the first place. Hugely common in reggae, dub and roots lyrics from the 1970s onward.