I have never been interested in Reggae. Never. But when I heard the title track to
Damian Marley’s (youngest son of Bob) new album
‘Welcome To Jamrock’ I was instantly intrigued. The title track itself is a somewhat shocking insight into both the Jamaican crime culture and (in his opinion anyway) the sheer amount of inequality that exists there. You’re immediately drawn to listen to the whole song from the second you hear the opening line –
‘Out in the streets, they call it murder’.
So, naturally, I bought the new album.
Now, I’m not going to pretend that I’ve been ‘down’ with Damian ‘Jnr Gong’ Marley from the beginning, and I’m not going to pretend that I was a fan of his father – far from it, but this album really makes me listen. It contains such a hybrid of different styles of music that it will be enjoyed, if not loved, by fans of many different types of genre, including reggae, rap, hip hop, swing, funk and even dancehall (Specifically on
‘Hey Girl’).
Furthermore, this album contains a host of varied guest features including older brother Stephen on
’All night’ and
’For the Babies’ (aswell as co-features on
’Pimpa’s Paradise/ and
’Hey Girl’), Bobby Brown on
’Beautiful, Black Thought on
’Pimpa’s Paradise’, Rovleta Fraser on
’Hey Girl’, Nas on
’Road To Zion’, Bounty Killer and Eek-A-Mouse on
’Khaki Suit’ and finally Chew Stick on bonus track
’Carnal Mind’. Such a diverse range of guests merely adds to the overall power of this album. The constant switch of styles between each track may, however, annoy some listeners. I imagine that Reggae purists will dislike the nature of this album for that reason alone, and that some hip hop fans will dislike it because it’s simply not hip hop enough, merely bordering on it on occasion. Also, some will dislike it due to the enormity of the title track. It’s such an excellent and powerful song that it is in danger of overpowering the rest of the album. It will probably end up as Marley’s greatest ever single and with no other song on this album even coming close to this one, many of the other tracks will simply fade into history, which is a shame, because they’re all fine tracks in themselves.
I however thoroughly enjoyed this album for what it was – the first reggae album I’ve ever purchased. Is it enough to make me branch out and listen to more reggae artists? Probably not. I will, however, check out some of Damian’s other albums (
’Halfway Tree’, 2001 ;
’Educated Fools’, 2001; and
’Mr. Marley’, 1996) and keep my eye out in future for any further releases (especially those which play with the boundaries of reggae/rap).
Overall – 4/5
www.damianmarleymusic.com
