Smiley Culture, the reggae singer from Britain who reached fame in the 1980s for singing about the difficulties of young black men in the face of police oppression, died in his Warlingham, Surrey home on March 15 during a police raid on his home.

The official police story is that Smiley, born David Emmanuel, killed himself by stabbing a knife into his heart after the police had surrounded his house. He was 48 when he died.

Born in 1963, Smiley Culture was a reggae singer / deejay who was best known for his ‘fast chat’ style. He released 2 of the most critically-acclaimed reggae singles of the 1980s. The first is his Police Officer reggae song, which hit #12 on the UK pop music charts back in 1985. It is based on his own experiences being caught carrying marijuana and then escaping arrest because the police officers recognize him as a popular singer and offering an autograph.

Smily is also famous for his previous single, 1984′s Cockney Translation song, which shared the experience of being black in Britain and trying to also preserve one’s West Indian roots by explaining his cockney rhymes in a Caribbean accent.

Smiley Culture is far more famous in the UK than here in the United States. He has shared work with Maxi Priest and appeared in David Bowie‘s 1986 film Absolute Beginners. Other British musicians including as DJ Luck, MC Neat, and Roots Manuva, have described him as a major influence on their work, Roots Manuva having described Smiley as a “Britrap pioneer.”

This is the 2nd time Culture has appeared in the news under cloudy circumstances: last year he faced a judge for charges of conspiracy to supply cocaine. His was out on bail and his trial was scheduled to begin on March 21, 2011.

The British Independent Police Complaints Commission is investigating Smiley Culture’s death.