article published: RIDDIM #2 / 2005 (Int'l Issue, sold out)
Patricia Meschino

While their hit song, one the biggest reggae tunes of 2005, contradicts the 
widely publicized visitor friendly images of Jamaica, the harsh realities 
conveyed throughout Damian and Stephen’s Marley’s depictions of their 
island-in-the-sun birthplace has nonetheless resonated among a worldwide 
audience with far more success than any recent tourist board ad campaign. But 
the song is not a one-off lucky shot: it has taken a decade of tireless effort 
and experimentation, much of it in defiance of the standard approach to reggae 
music making, for the Marley brothers to arrive at this level of sonic 
sophistication.

With the spotlight’s dazzling glare highlighting his chiseled good looks and 
cascading lion’s mane of dreadlocks, the “youngest veteran” confidently strode 
on stage at Jamaica’s Reggae Sumfest 2005. Accompanied by an assortment of 
traditional drum and bass driven riddims and blistering dancehall beats 
provided by his Empire Band, his performance repertoire spanned three albums 
released over the last 10 years including tunes that introduced him to the 
reggae market (“Me Name Junior Gong”), popular hits (“More Justice”) and his 
2004 Jamaican single “In 2 Deep”. In a special Sumfest segment he also reached 
into his father’s revered song catalogue and delivered stirring renditions of 
the politically charged anthems “Top Ranking”, “Zimbabwe” and “Bad Card”. His 
older brother Stephen joined him onstage to perform their 2002 hit “It Was 
Written” with Stephen delivering “Hey Baby” from his upcoming solo album “Got 
Music?” A heavily demanded encore followed and amidst the crowd’s overwhelming 
display of lighters and torches, the crackle of fireworks and the resounding 
blare of bullhorns, Junior Gong delivered the song that most Jamaicans had 
waited nearly a year to hear performed live on their island. Few Sumfest 
performances were met with such unabashed zeal but this was something 
extraordinary: this was Damian Marley’s return to Jamaica in the year of 
Jamrock. The Chinese calendar refers to 2005 as the year of the rooster; the 
Japanese calendar designates it as the year of the Toshi Dori and Tibetans 
observe 2005 as the wood bird year 2131. For most reggae fans, however, 2005 
will be remembered as the year of “Welcome to Jamrock”, a song possessing such 
powerful lyrical imagery and production innovation, it has obscured most of the 
year’s other releases.

Produced by Stephen Marley with Damian’s assistance on drum machine programming 
“Welcome to Jamrock” is anchored in a sample of a 1985 hit by Ini Kamoze, 
“World A Reggae Music”, produced by Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare who 
(respectively) also played drum and bass on the song. Twenty years later 
Robbie’s piercing bassline still sounds as foreboding as the harrowing scenes 
portrayed in Damian’s lyrics:
“Welcome to Jamdown poor people dead at random political violence can’t done / 
di thugs them wi’ do what them got to and won’t think twice to shot you…”. 
“Welcome to Jamrock” is that rare tune that has become an anthem both in 
Jamaica and on urban radio stations across America, a format that has slightly 
warmed to (although not fully embraced) dancehall in recent years but still 
maintains an uncomfortable distance from roots reggae’s hard hitting messages 
and loping one drop riddims. In a striking example of “Jamrock’s” pervasive 
influence, recently incarcerated rapper Lil’ Kim borrows the song’s premise and 
melody for her current hit “Lighters Up” a.k.a. “Welcome to Brooklyn”.

Backstage at Sumfest, in the midst of the media adoration that followed their 
performance, Stephen and Damian Marley commented on the “Jamrock” phenomenon 
and each other’s role in the song’s success. “That song already had one of the 
greatest components which is familiarity,” says Stephen, 33, son of Bob and 
Rita Marley, “because everyone is familiar with (the lyrics) “out in the 
streets they call it murder”. Damian is the man that really builds the beats so 
he loop up that and make another song out of it so much props to Sly and Robbie 
and Ini Kamoze for making great music like that so that we can come in this 
time and take it a step further.” “To me it was a great hook, the part that we 
used and the ‘Jamrock’ lyrics idea I had from before,” adds Damian, 27, son of 
Bob and former Miss World Cindy Breakspeare. “When we put the riddim together, 
we said, yeah, this come like it suit the riddim; after that Steve came up with 
some keyboards and sound effects and polished it up to the sound you hear on 
the record.”

As the Marley family’s primary producer Stephen had just completed younger 
brother Julian’s (son of Bob and Lucy Pounder) third CD “A Time and Place” when 
he began simultaneous work on his long awaited solo effort “Got Music?” and 
Damian’s third full length release at the family’s Lions Den studio in Miami 
where both brothers now reside. Stephen’s album was in its final mixing stages 
and Damian had already completed several tracks when the “Welcome to Jamrock” 
single caught fire in Jamaica in October 2004; within a few months, the flames 
spread with the rapidity of a California brushfire throughout the Caribbean, 
Europe and even onto North American radio playlists which accelerated the 
release date of “Welcome to Jamrock” ahead of “Got Music?”, which is now 
scheduled to drop sometime in 2006.

However nothing about “Welcome to Jamrock” sounds hurried and for both Marley 
brothers, it represents their most complex and audacious work to date. The CD 
opens with “Confrontation” featuring an introductory chant from Bunny Wailer 
and snippets of speeches from Marcus Garvey and Haile Selassie I woven into the 
stirring accompaniment provided by 20 members of Miami’s Symphonic Strings. 
Over a sparse military drum beat dramatized by the ominous whir of distant 
helicopters, Damian delivers a blistering call to armed consciousness:
“The Almighty we recruit and we come from the root we build like roach killing 
boot / Rastafari design we tuff / If a the fight for freedom sign me up cause 
you Tell-Lie-Vision can’t blind me up / Soldiers and police dem wising up / 
Realizing they’re no more right than us, realizing there’s no fighting us / 
Realizing their opening their eyes to see the same demoralizing life as us.”

Neither dancehall, hip-hop nor R&B, “Confrontation” can only be categorized as 
one of the all time great protest songs: as “Jamrock” uses a bold reggae 
bassline to underscore the atrocities associated with Jamaica’s garrison 
community runnings, “Confrontation”, inspired by the ongoing global horrors 
particularly in The Middle East, uses various sonic elements to depict the 
ravages of war “from London to (Miami’s) Dadeland Mall.” The caustic commentary 
continues with “In 2 Deep” with Damian’s rapid fire rhymes aimed at the perils 
of pop culture: “Want commit suicide cause you’ve been denied of your 9 to 5 
you’re in 2 deep / If you’re over 10 and watch CNN and believe everything 
you’re in 2 deep” .

He offers plaintive singing on “There For You” a tribute to departed friend 
Daddigon (who is similarly honored on Sean Paul’s “The Trinity” with “Never 
Gonna Be The Same”) and becomes the consummate retro roots rocker on the 
inspiring “We’re Gonna Make It” but also displays a playful side on the 
rollicking reggae romp “All Night” (with Stephen providing the sung chorus) 
which is slightly reminiscent of Chaka Demus and Pliers engaging singles from 
the early 90s. Dancehall from the 80s and early 90s provides a strong influence 
on several tracks including “The Master Has Come Back” with its references to 
that eras fashion crazes (Clarke’s Booties and Wallabies) and “Khaki Suit” 
(it’s title taken from another of sartorial trend of that time) which loops a 
segment of deejay Eek A Mouse’s early 80s hit “Anarexol” and also features the 
6’4” mouse’s present day rhymes. “That is the era I grew up in, later coming 
through Shabba and those guys,” explains Damian, “so that era is music that I 
love dearly.” Damian’s style of deejaying owes a greater debt to artists from 
the 80s than to the current crop of chanters which is why he is called the 
‘youngest veteran’. “Because I deejay like a veteran style, Stephen gave me the 
title and now it has become more relevant because people say, bwoy you come 
like an old man in a young body.”

Prior to scaling the heights they have achieved with their “Jamrock” CD, Damian 
and Stephen Marley collaborated for more than ten years, a period filled with 
musical trials, errors and experiments with Stephen wearing multiple hats as 
mentor, artistic director, songwriter and producer.

Damian was just 14 when he began working with Stephen on his debut album “Mr. 
Marley” at the Marley Music Studios in Kingston but his professional career 
dates back even further. At just 12 years old, Bob’s youngest son became the 
lead singer of The Shepherds, a group comprised of other prominent reggae 
artists’ children including Shiah Coore, son of Third World’s Cat Coore and now 
a member of Damian’s Empire Band and Yashema Beth McGregor, the daughter of 
Freddie McGregor and Judy Mowatt. After The Shepherds’ demise, Damian turned 
his vocal talents to deejaying and in 1993 released his debut single “Deejay 
Degree” on the label founded by his father Tuff Gong Records. The next year he 
released “Sexy Girls On My Mind” for the Main Street label, followed in 1995 by 
the single “School Controversy” which was featured on the Epic/Sony Wonder 
compilation “Positively Reggae”.

Stephen, however, was not pleased with Damian’s vocals on those singles and he 
knew that if his youngest brother was given proper attention in the studio, he 
was capable of much greater work. “If Damian not comfortable, you’re not going 
to get the best of him,” said Steven back in 1997 while seated at the Marley 
Studio’s 48 track mixing console after a session with the youngest veteran. “Mi 
know him and mi could hear that. They used to bring him in and the (music) 
track already laid and that can’t work,” he said waving his hand dismissively, 
“because you have to make music around the person.” As a means of bolstering 
Damian’s confidence and coaxing his best performances, Stephen customized each 
track on “Mr. Marley”, incorporating various live and synthesized elements into 
a contemporary reggae dancehall fusion. “Me say to him mek we go to the studio 
and from that it just take off; if you see how him come out and get 
comfortable,” Stephen continued. “We teach him slowly, it’s not like we rush 
and say ok, next track, we’d say, we think you should sing it this way so we 
build up his confidence. When I was starting out me used to go over line for 
line until me know my pitch and it’s the same process me put him through, ‘sing 
it from your belly, sing it like you’re onstage, sing it comfortable.’ All them 
little things me have to teach him.”

“Mr. Marley” included several updates of Bob Marley classics as well as the 
single “Me Name Junior Gong” which went to the number one in Hawaii and held 
that position for several weeks. However, that breakthrough might never have 
occurred without Stephen’s unyielding dedication towards developing Damian’s 
skills. “It was Steve who really believed in me from the beginning,” reminisced 
Damian at Sumfest. “Most of ‘Mr. Marley’s’ lyrics were written by Steve. I 
might have had a little idea or I would come up with the melody for the hook 
and some of the words. All of that was a learning experience for me: learning 
how to sing on key to a rhythm, timing, a lot of things, that I had the basics 
of but was still a bit shaky, not perfect. He had to really sit down with me 
and write the songs out, sometimes line for line to keep my mind sharp. That’s 
how it really went down in those days.”

“Mr. Marley” was an ambitious effort from both artist and producer but given 
their youth and limited experience it contained several awkward, even strained 
musical moments (as well as an over reliance on sampled music by their dad) and 
little hint of the sophisticated artistry their recordings would display in 
just a few years. At about the same time, Stephen also produced Julian’s “Lion 
In The Morning”, an earnest if somewhat unexciting one drop endeavor featuring 
Wailers bassist Aston “Family Man” Barrett and keyboard player Tyrone Downie 
(who have both contributed enormously to the enduring popularity of Bob 
Marley’s music).

Although Stephen was just a teenager himself when he began producing Damian and 
Julian’s albums, his career began almost fifteen years earlier as a precocious 
five year old joining his elder siblings Ziggy, Sharon and Cedella (also the 
children of Bob and Rita Marley) as one of the three time Grammy winning group 
The Melody Makers. Stephen, who has toured the world, singing, dancing and 
playing percussion with the Melody Makers, learned the rudiments of production 
by observing his father. “My father used to take us in the studio from the time 
we were small, he would say come, sit down and he’d teach us,” Stephen recalls. 
“Me go through that, Ziggy go through that, Cedella too. Music is serious, he 
used to tell us. Music is like a prayer and you just don’t put anything in a 
prayer, you say important things, you pray for people who are suffering. That 
same approach he teach we. Music lesson he’d say, don’t take it for a joke, 
better you (study to become a) doctor. If you’re not really serious don’t do 
it, that’s how him say it, blunt and serious like that.”

Since his teenage years, Stephen has demonstrated his seriousness by balancing 
The Melody Makers touring commitments with a hectic production schedule at the 
Marley Music studios in addition to guiding the development of his younger 
brothers’ talents. As a means of gaining control of their own music and helping 
struggling young artists, Stephen and Ziggy founded Ghetto Youth International 
(GYI) in 1995; both Damian’s “Mr. Marley” and Julian’s “Lion In The Morning” 
were released on GYI. “We knew for Damian’s album we wanted that hard-core 
sound and out of Julian we wanted that root,” said Stephen. “We got sounds we 
couldn’t get as Melody Makers because of what the (other) labels would tell us 
but with our own label, Ghetto Youths, we can do it as it’s supposed to be 
done.”

In 1999 Stephen’s production skills merited mainstream attention with the 
Island Records/Tuff Gong/Ghetto Youths release of “Chant Down Babylon”. 
Assisted by Damian and Julian, Stephen manipulated the vocal outtakes from his 
father’s original 1970s Island Record recording sessions, splicing them into 
duets with current hip-hop and R&B artists while revamping The Wailers’ 
original drum and bass driven riddims with various samples, loops and overdubs. 
“The whole process was re-mixing and remaking the song, coming up with a whole 
different beat but keeping the same feel of the song,” Stephen explained. “We 
take our father’s vocal, become him, sing the song but try to get the vibe of 
today, then get his vocals, build a track and fit it in for that song. The 
guest artist is the last part and we set the guest artist time and space on the 
record, making sure that our father dominates the record.”

The results ranged from Guru’s poignant interpretation of “Johnny Was” to 
(Aersosmith’s) Steven Tyler and Joe Perry’s hard rockin’ “Roots Rock Reggae” to 
Busta Rhymes’ street wise rendition of the devotional “Rasta Man Chant”. “Chant 
Down Babylon” earned a Grammy nomination and has sold more than one million 
copies worldwide but received a fair amount of censuring from critics and fans 
alike who felt the music of the Gong should not be altered by anyone. Stephen 
shrugs off such condemnations because his intention was to modify the medium 
(not the content) of Bob’s lyrics as a means of making his messages palatable 
to young hip-hop and R&B fans. “The ones who criticize are those who know 
(Bob’s music) but this one was for those who don’t know,” notes Stephen.

While the production standards of “Chant Down Babylon” surpassed Stephen’s 
previous work some of the guest artists’ performances were plainly incongruous 
to Bob’s vocals and a few of the beats (“Concrete Jungle”, “Jammin”, “Kinky 
Reggae”) sounded anemic when compared to the Wailers’ full bodied roots 
riddims. But as Stephen readily admits if he were to make “Chant Down Babylon” 
today, it would indeed be a very different record. “A whole heap a time you 
make music and by the time it come out you go past it long time,” he reasons. 
“It is like bloodclaat! But that always happen so you always have to try to do 
better, that is how greatness is attained, you can’t settle, you have to move 
up.”

A dramatic move upward for Stephen and Damian arrived with the release of 
Damian’s 2002 Grammy winning sophomore release “Half Way Tree”, named after the 
busy Kingston thoroughfare. As Damian explains, the CDs title was also selected 
“because my father is from the country and the ghetto and my mother is from 
uptown so I come like a half way tree, like a bridge because I can relate to 
both sides.” Released as a joint venture between Motown Records and Ghetto 
Youths International, “Half Way Tree” made a significant impact in the 
dancehall with the hits “It Was Written” (featuring Capleton and Drag On) and 
“More Justice” (written by Damian and Ziggy). However, Stephen’s production 
(again) eschewed the template used for most dancehall hits, i.e., laying vocal 
tracks over the most popular riddims emanating from Kingston studios. As he had 
done on “Mr. Marley”, Stephen crafted each track to support Damian’s various 
lyrical moods but this time the beats were far more adventurous with greater 
textures and a smoother flow between the CD’s reggae-dancehall grooves and its 
hip-hop and R&B undercurrents. Damian also demonstrated astonishing growth as a 
vocalist and lyricist offering substantial subject matter mixed with lighter 
fare delivered with greater confidence and conviction although the salsa 
accented “She Needs My Love” and the clichéd gangsta tale retold in “Born to Be 
Wild” fall short of the standards set by most of the other tracks.

Despite being one of the 2001/2002 stronger reggae efforts, detractors argued 
Damian received his Grammy because of his birthright and affiliation with 
Motown and not on the merits of his music. Such negativity, reasons Damian, 
accompanies being the offspring of a cultural icon/musical superstar. “I been a 
Marley all my life, that will never change so I can’t even watch that, but if 
it helps me, of course, I’m going to take that help,” Damian proclaims. “We 
just do our works and if people judge our works with awards like the Grammys we 
give thanks but we don’t make music to win Grammys and I hope other artists 
aren’t making their music to win the Grammy either. We make music because we 
love making music, we put a lot of time, effort and sacrifice into it and work 
very hard. Making this one we never really focus too much (on what’s going on) 
in the streets because we kind of lock off and secluded so we really don’t let 
the outside environment trouble the focus of the music.”
Perhaps the most striking quality of Damian’s “Welcome to Jamrock” and 
Stephen’s “Got Music?” is their lack of preoccupation with popular music trends 
in Jamaica or anywhere else for that matter; both works certainly reflect a 
multitude of influences but ultimately, Damian and Stephen make music that 
swings to it’s own beat. “Got Music?” shimmers with the subtleties only live 
(as opposed to sampled) music can provide with Stephen’s production strategies 
linked to those he learned from his father.

“From me father time I used to be in the studio and if it 18 instruments you 
have 18 microphones,” he states. “Me remember how intricate it is to get things 
right from the mic to the amplifier sound, the whole sound. In live music it’s 
how you place your microphone, what kind of mic you use to get what type of 
sound you need; what kind of amplifier for the guitar; live music is more 
intricate, you have to have more vision for that while sequenced music you just 
boom! And it’s there. That is the ultimate way to make music, live, yeah, so if 
you go on the keyboard and play a flute, at the end of the day, the flute man 
should come and play that.”

“Got Music’s” title track boasts a riddim distantly reminiscent of Bob’s 
“Jammin” with smoky sax accents billowing underneath a Marley roll call ( “tell 
Junior Gong to give me something strong, Julian is on the radio, telling them 
something they don’t know, Sharon and Cedella doing fine, Ziggy’s keeping 
everything in line” ) evoking the familial greeting expressed by Bob in “Keep 
On Moving”. “Mind Control” decries the Babylon system’s use of mental 
manipulation as a means of modern day slavery while the rumbling grooves and 
bureaucratic admonishments heard in “Chase Dem” sound like they could be 
outtakes from Bob’s 1979 masterpiece “Survival”.

As solid as those tracks are, it is “Got Music’s” unexpected musical moments 
that make it such a powerful and welcomed release. “Baby Mama” and “My Way” are 
delivered in an undiluted blues style with wailing harmonicas, gritty guitars 
and Stephen’s lamenting vocals. “Blues music always move me,” Stephen 
discloses. “I am a type of person that if a song is sad, I like a song to make 
me feel sad also. Blues is that type of music that you always feel the passion 
coming from the singer… “my woman where she gone?” he moans in an impromptu 
demonstration then continues, “I was really trying to do an interlude on those 
songs but it felt so good, I just went with it and did the whole song that 
way.” Stephen trods a “Winding Road” to the accompaniment of an acoustic guitar 
and a lonely trumpet in a gem of a tune that sounds as if it were excavated 
from the vaults of American folk pioneer Woody Guthrie or a pre-electric Bob 
Dylan. Because of the song’s philosophical outlook, i.e. choosing a smoothly 
paved yet destructive path versus a bumpy narrow road to eternity, Stephen 
decided to keep it’s delivery as simple as possible. “Sometime the more you add 
it takes away from the raw feel that I was feeling at the time of writing it,” 
he explains. “The trumpet (in the distance) those are things that I always 
wanted to do and to tell you the truth, it doesn’t sound like it is supposed to 
come from me.”

While Damian’s “Welcome to Jamrock” is more closely aligned to dancehall and 
hip-hop and Stephen’s “Got Music?” is a more contemplative roots related work 
(which will most likely find its audience among an older demographic) both 
releases’ incorporation of eclectic musical elements and overall originality 
precludes their classification as reggae despite possessing the lyrical 
forthrightness that has earmarked some of Jamaica’s most significant 
recordings.

Although Bob’s children have been criticized for everything from where they 
choose to live to how they spend their money to misappropriation of their 
father’s legacy, in this, The Year of Jamrock, Stephen and Damian Marley have 
distinguished themselves as formidable artists who have meticulously crafted 
meaningful music which is undeniably the essence of their father’s tradition.

“We are grateful that we are getting recognized that we are making good music 
and we have something positive to say,” observes Stephen. “We are not just 
Bob’s children but it is real over here and that is what we put into making 
music and we make sure that represents everything in the righteousness and in 
the social values. I remember my father get shot for music, for his beliefs, 
not for taking no active part in anything but for what him believe so it is not 
a joke thing. We have a responsibility to maintain: our father and mother 
worked really hard to get we where we are so it is our responsibility to work 
even harder and make sure the music can uplift and enlighten the people because 
they have been blinded and blighted for far too long.”

“Welcome To Jamrock” by Damian “Jr. Gong” is out on Universal, Stephen Marley’s 
album “Got Music?” will be released by Universal in 2006.

article available in german @ RIDDIM.de