The sound makes me smile. Its beat makes my soul move happily. Before I realize it, I am standing up and skankin’ in my living room and all over my apartment.

Before you use the wrong definition for “skank,” understand that it is a form of rhythmic dance done by shifting your weight from one foot to the other while alternating the knee that you raise.

Skank is not for just any type of music, but for the most soulful, socially conscious music: reggae. And reggae is never just reggae — it includes ska, dancehall, ragga, dub and, my favorite, roots reggae.

Roots reggae is the true positive vibration with the message of “One Love.” The figurehead of the roots movement is the world famous Jamaican, Robert Nesta Marley.

Roots began as a protest movement; it was the music used to voice what the people of Jamaica were experiencing 10 years after their island’s independence before reaching the ears of people around the globe.

With lyrics like, “They make the world so hard that everyday people are dying … so give us the teaching of our Majesty we don’t want no devil philosophy … I know Jah’ll (God) never let us down,” Bob Marley presented the protest at a spiritual level. The music preaches a doctrine of love, peace, black pride, anti-corruption and hope for the poor — some of the teachings of the Rastafari religion.

Roots reggae, as BBC’s “Story of Reggae” says, gave a voice to poor people. As one of my friends pointed out, Marley was the first one to bring attention to Third World conditions to those who lived in developed countries.

His legend continues two decades after his death, as others carry on the tradition and spread the message of love, hope, political justice and racial unity through roots reggae.

For those of us who live in the most industrialized nation in the world, it is easy to forget and even ignore the problems of the developing world. It is easy to see that Marley’s dream has not come true, but fortunately roots reggae is still around to inspire.

The first time I heard roots reggae I was about 12 years old. My father bought Marley’s Legend CD; its slow tempo and deep bass were a foreign sound to me, but I was captivated.

Although I understood basic English at that age, the lyrics — which also contain some Jamaican patois — were hard to follow. It wasn’t until years later that the meaning of roots reggae touched my life. Even if I am not an expert on this music, my soul and heart are connected to it.

It doesn’t matter what mood I am in, roots lifts my spirits and gets me smiling in no time. The lyrics serve as a reminder of how much work there is to be done in order to close the gap of inequality in our world.

Unfortunately, there are some who make themselves immune to the reality of this world while hunger, diseases and war never seem to stop. Maintaining the hope of achieving equality is a difficult task, but as Joseph Hill, lead singer of Culture sings, “There’s enough to satisfy every man’s need but never to satisfy their greed.”