It’s Thursday night in downtown Johannesburg and some 500 people are packed into Bassline, a warehouse-like club in a hipster-friendly neighborhood. They’re here for South Africa’s longest-running sound system, or crew of reggae DJs. But tonight they get something extra: a young woman with dreadlocks and an army cap gets on the mic to freestyle. [...]
Remembering Bob Marley’s Jamaica Homecoming on His 68th Birthday
February 6, 2013 | Posted by
When Bob Marley arrived at the Norman Manley International Airport in late February 1978, it had been two years since he had left Jamaica. He had fled the country in December 1976, following an assassination attempt on his life. The reggae star returned to Kingston for the “One Love Peace Concert,” scheduled for Saturday, April [...]
Bob Marley Trademark Lawsuit Settlement Agreement Reached Amongst Family
December 3, 2012 | Posted by
Bob Marley’s family has settled a lawsuit against the reggae legend’s half-brother, Richard Booker, TMZ reports. Last winter, Bob Marley’s widow Rita and nine of their children filed a lawsuit against Booker claiming trademark infringement and unauthorized use of Marley’s image. According to the suit, Booker had registered the trademark “Mama Marley” to sell a [...]
Danny Sims, Producer Who Signed Bob Marley to 1st International Contract, Dead at 75
October 31, 2012 | Posted by
Few people outside of the Caribbean knew who Bob Marley was when Danny Sims heard him perform in 1968. But Mr. Sims knew Marley was something special right away. “What I heard,” he recalled years later, “was the next Bob Dylan.” Mr. Sims, a music producer, publisher and promoter, promptly signed Marley to his first [...]
Raphael Saadiq Talks New Album, Chaka Khan, Trombone Shorty, Bob Marley
August 16, 2012 | Posted by
Raphael Saadiq has more than one sound ringing in his head these days. As he begins work on a new album in his Los Angeles studio, he’s already moving beyond the classic soul flavor of 2011′s critically acclaimed Stone Rollin’, which captured the warmth and excitement of Sixties/Seventies funk and R&B for a new generation. [...]
Jimmy Cliff’s ‘Rebirth’: Reggae Icon Knows Success Comes Hard
August 5, 2012 | Posted by
Without a doubt, the two artists most responsible for bringing reggae to the world stage are Bob Marley and Jimmy Cliff. Cliff became one of Jamaica’s first international superstars in the 1960s, scoring hits in the U.K. and Brazil. He’s best known for the 1972 film The Harder They Come, both as its lead actor [...]
Snoop Dogg Becomes Reggae Singer, Snoop Lion
July 31, 2012 | Posted by
Snoop Dogg says he has given up the rap game and turned to reggae. His new name? Snoop Lion. He said he had a Rastafarian transformation in Jamaica when he visited a temple. “I want to bury Snoop Dogg, and become Snoop Lion,” he said. “I didn’t know that until I went to the temple, [...]
Bob Marley Honored(?) with Parasitic Crustacean Named After Him
July 11, 2012 | Posted by
A small crustacean parasite which feeds on fish in the Caribbean has been named after Bob Marley, in what the biologist who discovered it calls a tribute to the late reggae icon. The tiny shellfish, a blood feeder that inhabits the coral reefs of the shallow eastern Caribbean, has been called Gnathia marleyi after the [...]
Ziggy Marley Launches ‘Ziggy Marley Organics’
June 13, 2012 | Posted by
Ziggy Marley may be best known as the son of legendary musician, Bob Marley and for his own contributions to reggae music but the singer has bigger things in mind than just his music. Alongside his musical career, Marley’s food activism has prompted him to create Ziggy Marley Organics Food, a brand of food that [...]
Jazz, Blues, Roots: We Are Handing Our Dazzling Cultural Legacy Over to Europeans and Asians
May 16, 2012 | Posted by
Towards the end of Marley, the new documentary chronicling the brief life and brilliant career of the Jamaican music legend, members of his organization lament the failure of Bob Marley and the Wailers to be embraced by black American audiences. Marley died in 1981 from the melanoma that had spread throughout his body. He was [...]
