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Words by Jesse Serwer—
The connection between Eric Clapton and Bob Marley runs deep. “Slowhand”‘s 1974 version of “I Shot the Sheriff” is perhaps the most famed reggae cover of all-time, and the song that gave Marley’s music some of its earliest mainstream exposure in the U.S. To this day, it’s the only Clapton single (solo or otherwise) to hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and the only Marley composition to do so as well.
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Words by LargeUp Crew—
Play reggae and looking for your big break? Marley’s Mellow Mood and the Marley family are launching a national search to find “the next great artist or band in the tradition of Bob Marley.” Prizes for the Marley’s Music Uprising contest include opportunities to perform on the Sierra Nevada, Electric Forest and Gathering of the Vibes music festivals this summer, and a grand-prize studio session at Tuff Gong Studio with Stephen Marley.
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There was a point in the late 70′s when Bob Marley had become such an international icon that Jamaica’s people were identifying more with artists who were still based locally. Jacob Miller and his band Inner Circle were pretty much running things in this era and were getting far more play in the dancehall than Marley. Featured prominently in the cult classic film Rockers, “The Killer” will always be remembered for his larger than life persona. Splashes of his unique vocal style can be heard in plenty of contemporary artists, (See Sizzla’s “Praise Ye Jah, hail the empor-ah-ah-ah”) plus Jacob Miller’s shirtless, big-belly man swag was unprecedented!
To mark the late, great bigman’s earthstrong, we’re hittin’ you with a track off the new Jacob Miller tribute album, Aloha To The Killer (Dubshot Records) which features all Hawaiian reggae artists. Listen to this vocally embellished version of the classic “Tenement Yard” by Irie Love.
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Words by Jesse Serwer—
It looks like it might be reggae week over at Rolling Stone. Besides for running some controversial comments from Snoop Lion about Bunny Wailer, the magazine’s website interviewed Island Records founder Chris Blackwell (that’s him above left, with Jimmy Buffett and friend at Blackwell Rum’s US launch party two years ago), who offered some interesting perspectives on Jamaican music, past and present. Besides for speaking on the 40th anniversary of Bob Marley’s Catch a Fire, Blackwell shouted out some of his favorite current Jamaican acts: Chronixx, No-Maddz, Raging Fyah and Shaggy.
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Words by LargeUp Crew, Photo and Video by Jason Zucker—
Sure, hip-hop has The Chronic, “I Got 5 On It,” and Meth and Red’s entire catalog, but when it comes to weed-smoking anthems, reggae is king. With literally tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of reggae weed anthems to choose from, we selected some of our favorites and tapped the artist behind one of ‘em, Carlton “100 Weight of Collie Weed” Livingston, to run down the best of the best. Earlier this week, we rolled out numbers 20-11 in our first video. With 4/20 upon us, here’s the Toppa Top 10.
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Words by Jesse Serwer, Photo By Mariamma Kambon—
Saturday’s 9 Mile Festival in Miami was a coming of age thing for the grandchildren of Bob Marley. Daniel Bambaata Marley, eldest son of Ziggy, helped warm up the crowd with a well-received early performance at the surprisingly cold and wintery event. Jo Mersa Marley, Stephen’s eldest son, joined his father and uncles Damian and Julian onstage to perform his own material during their headlining set later in the evening. The younger Marleys have performed at the annual Marley family-affiliated festival before but this year saw them take a more prominent place at the proceedings, fresh off their appearances on the new Ghetto Youths International album Set Up Shop. Volume 1.
