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GRAMMYs

Bob Marley 

Photo: Mike Prior/Redferns

News
Ziggy Marley To Pay Tribute Bob Marley ziggy-marley-pay-tribute-his-father-bob-marley-special-livestream

Ziggy Marley To Pay Tribute To His Father Bob Marley With Special Livestream

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The performance will celebrate the late reggae icon's 75th birthday anniversary
Jennifer Velez
GRAMMYs
Jul 15, 2020 - 4:51 pm

Ziggy Marley will pay homage to his late father Bob Marley through an intimate virtual livestream experience on July 19 as a part of ongoing celebrations for Bob Marley's 75th birthday anniversary. 

The GRAMMY-winning reggae singer will perform 11 of the reggae icon's tracks on the Bob Marley's official YouTube channel at 12 p.m. EST. The performance will be made into an e-album called Ziggy Marley – Bob Marley 75th Celebration (pt. 1) out July 31. 

The livestream is in partnership with CEEK Virtual Reality, which Universal Music Enterprises President and CEO Bruce Resnikoff said will help embody Bob Marley's essence during the tribute: "With Ceek's innovative technology, Ziggy Marley has created an immersive experience that's rooted in Bob Marley's passion and sense of community and honors his father's legacy by bringing people together through the power of music."

https://twitter.com/bobmarley/status/1283090397263278086

THIS SUNDAY 📺 July 19 @ 12p ET

Join us as @ZiggyMarley performs a special streaming concert in celebration of #BobMarley75 on YouTube!

Watch page/set reminder: https://t.co/mY2VgG9ueg pic.twitter.com/05e541Npvb

— Bob Marley (@bobmarley) July 14, 2020

Ziggy will also take part in a Q&A after the performance on Creek Virtual Reality's platform. 

In a 2018 conversation with GRAMMY.com, Marley described the impact his father left on him. "I think for me what I learned from my father most [from] being around him is a way of having principles and living up to your principles and standing up for your principles," he said. "His example is a good example for me. … Selflessness, charity, standing up for what you believe, and having principles. Spirituality too."

Marley, born on February 6, 1945, would have turned 75 earlier this year. His legacy has been remembered throughout his social media and with celebrations, including a Sirius/XM launching a limited-edition Tuff Gong Radio Channel and a Legend album picture disc release on July 24. 

How Social Sanctuary Reimagined Live Entertainment For The COVID Era

Ziggy Marley

Ziggy Marley

Photo: Kristin Burns

News
Ziggy Marley On 'More Family Time' & Toots Hibbert ziggy-marley-talks-more-family-time-joy-toots-hibbert-bob-marley-legacy

Ziggy Marley Talks Working With His Kids On 'More Family Time,' The Joy Of Toots Hibbert & Bob Marley's Revolution

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The GRAMMY-winning reggae legend chats about his latest music, an upbeat, collab-rich children's album inspired by—and featuring—his youngest son
Ana Monroy Yglesias
GRAMMYs
Oct 5, 2020 - 3:16 pm

The rhythms and ethos of reggae very much run through Ziggy Marley's veins. Not only was he born into reggae royalty as one of the sons of the late, great Bob Marley, he has spent most of his life immersed in it. As a young kid, he absorbed it during his father's studio sessions and, not long after, he and his siblings began making it themselves as the Melody Makers.

Back in 1989, Ziggy took home his first GRAMMY, with the Melody Makers, for Best Reggae Recording for Conscious Party. He has since earned eight total GRAMMYs to date and put out eight solo studio albums. Throughout it all, he has continued to spread messages of love, equality and unity through music, as his father did and other members of the Marley clan also continue to do.

And just as his father encouraged him and his siblings to make music, Ziggy's passing the torch to his children. On his latest album, More Family Time, released on on Sept. 18, four of his kids (Gideon, Judah, Abraham and Isaiah) contribute, along with their dog Romeo, Ziggy's brother Stephen Marley and famous friends including Lisa Loeb, Sheryl Crow, Angelique Kidjo, Alanis Morrissette and more. The lively, joyful family album was inspired by the four-year-old Isaiah and is a follow up to 2009's Emmy- and GRAMMY-winning Family Time.

Read: This Is What We Live: Damian Marley On The 15th Anniversary Of 'Welcome To Jamrock'

We recently chatted with Ziggy to hear about all the magic that went into the album, his memory of the great Toots Hibbert, what his father's legacy means to him and more.

So, you just released more Family Time, which follows 2009's Family Time. What are you hoping that kids and parents experience while listening to this album?

Well, for this one, especially since we're in such a situation, a lot of kids aren't in school and we've been in quarantine with the COVID issue. I just hope this is some relief and some positive energy that the family can enjoy together. This is really simple, that's what it is really.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CFKvZLlpV35

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A post shared by Ziggy Marley (@ziggymarley)

Can you talk a little bit about how your four-year-old son Isaiah inspired both the "Goo Goo Ga Ga" song and then the project as a whole?

Isaiah, since he was born, he has been around me a lot. Even more than the other kids, he was actually in the studio. And he is on the cover of my last album, Rebellion Rises and he was always in the studio during that album. So, when I'm around him, and you see him, he used to just go on and say "goo goo gaga, goo goo gaga, goo goo gaga." And so, that kicked off the process of me writing. And after that, it just kept going in that direction, so I let it go that way. To make an album for family and children specifically, it's always good to have children around. For me, it's natural. So it was just a part of the inspiration.

GRAMMYs

Ziggy Marley at home with his family | Photo: Kristin Burns

And both he and some of your other kids sang on a couple of the songs. Was it fun for them? What was it like getting the family involved?

When Isaiah first tried, I was so surprised. He just did it. The song called "Move Your Body," he just did this thing which was incredible to me. I was so amazed. He had so much expression. I was just blown away. I didn't expect him to have fun to do it. So, it's so real, what he did and how he did it. And from all the other kids, I bring them in just like my father would bring me in, I bring us in.

For the older ones, the teenagers, it was tedious because they're teens and they only want to do so much for it. But I made them do it and afterwards they got into it. We enjoyed doing it together. Sometimes they're happy to hear themselves on the record again. My daughter, Judah, is 15. She was the inspiration for the first Family Time album. She was about the same age then as Isaiah is now and she's on the first album also. So, it's just a continuation.

All of the songs on the album are really fun and joyful, but I really love the upbeat energy of "Move Your Body." And the fact that Tom Morello and Busta Rhymes are on this awesome kid's song, it blows my mind. How did that track come together?

I think that track is the weirdest track on the album, in terms of how it came about, because it started out as something totally different. And as we went along, as Tom added his piece to it, it kind of changed my perspective on it. And then Busta did it, so my whole perspective was actually changing from the original idea as the creative process went along and it morphed into this "Move Your Body" song.

It's just all about moving. It's an energy song to move to, really. There's not a lot of lyrical stuff, "la la lee lee lee la la lo," is actually from the Ethiopian alphabet. So some of the things that I say in that song have meaning to them, but it's okay if you don't know the meaning. It's one of the crazier songs I've done, with Tom and Busta. [Laughs.]

Read: Tom Morello On Storytelling & Rocking Out, Mixed-Race Identity, The 2020 Election & More

When you were making the song, were you like, "I need Tom and Busta on the song?" I'm also curious about the rest of the collaborations and how they all came together.

All of these artists pretty much, I've known for years. Most of them, we'll see each other, we'll talk to each other. Busta Rhymes is an old friend of ours, we've known him for years. Sheryl, Ben [Harper], Angelique, all these people, we have a comradery from working together in the past.

As the album went on and I did each song, each song kind of told me—because I know each individual—who would be good on it. I was like, "Oh, this song sounds like it's a Sheryl Crow sound." When I wrote "Everywhere You Go" the chorus reminded me of one of her songs. I was like, "Oh, Sheryl would be good for that." So each song spoke to me about who would fit in it, and that came from me knowing them and knowing their music.

You sang "Three Little Birds" with Toots Hibbert on the new Toots and the Maytals album [Got To Be Tough], which came out shortly before he passed away. What does that track and having sang it with him mean to you? And what was one of the biggest things you have learned from Toots?

I feel for me to sing a song with Toots is to understand what Toots brought in, to me it was a great interpretation, but so different and still good. I mean, sometimes you do something different, but this one was really good. I really liked it. We did it a few years ago, actually.

Toots was like a good luck charm. Toots was an angel of joy, he brought joy. He was the type of angel that no matter where you are when they appear, magically everybody's happy. He had that power in him to bring joy and happiness. I don't know anybody like Toots who has that ability, just by his energy, to just bring joy. He was a very unique spirit with a very unique gift. It was unique to him as far as I know, I don't know anybody that's like that.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CFXmacNJPe2/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

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A post shared by Ziggy Marley (@ziggymarley)

Watch: Skip Marley Asks Us To "Slow Down" For Press Play

That's beautiful. This year has also brought 75th anniversary celebrations for your dad, Bob Marley. What does his legacy mean to you?

My father was about being a good human, being righteous and just and fearless. And he treated people of all walks of life with respect as human beings. It's not about music, it's about humanity. That is what legacy is. It's much deeper than music, you know? That is how I see it.

That's so fitting for the time we're in right now. What message do you think he'd have for what's going on in the world right now? Or what is one of his messages you think would most apply right now?

There's a few, especially with what's happening in America and the Black Lives Matter movement here. He was very aware of the oppression of African people and people of African heritage. He had songs like "Blackman Redemption," Africa Unite" and others in that spectrum of it that was a part of a revolutionary movement. And he is that, but he was also on the side of love too. There's "One Love," "Three Little Birds" and stuff like that. So he's the balance.

But right now, in the situation that we are in, I think the tone would be more on the side of "Get Up, Stand Up" and even "Blackman Redemption," because it is important that equality is for everyone. This is something that people have fought for years, and we still have a fight for it today. We still have to stand up and march in the streets for it because inequality and injustice does exist. And I don't think we can just stand by and not put our voices towards it. His messages are a part of that that movement also.

Sometimes people are kind of look over the more revolutionary side of my father, they want to just see the "One Love" and "Three Little Birds" and forget that other side to him. I won't forget that.

Bob Marley & The Wailers' 'Exodus': For The Record

What was it like growing up in the Marley family? Did you always know that you would dedicate your life to music? Or did you have other ideas?

I knew I could do anything I wanted to if I put my mind to, but music kind of came upon me because of the inspiration to write songs. If I wasn't inspired to write songs, I wouldn't be doing music. That is the only reason I'm a musician is because, for some reason, I write songs.

I mean, nobody taught me to write songs. I didn't go to school write songs. Nobody told me how to do it, it just happened. It is a gift that was given to me by nature or by whatever forces you want to call it. So, I accepted that gift and I put that gift out there so other people can get something from it too. That is why I do music, I could have done anything, but nature called me towards music. I was skilled, you know.

Part of the proceeds from More Family Time support the U.R.G.E. Foundation you lead in Jamaica. Can you share a little bit about the work that the organization does?

Yeah. I mean we love children. We have a school in Jamaica, and we help with the teachers' salaries, sports equipment and making sure to keep them on a good playground. And then we've also joined with other organizations in other areas. In Los Angeles here, we work with an organization that is an after-school program for underprivileged kids and we help them out also. We do stuff in Mexico too.

It's all children-focused. I think that is the most important part of society—if we can help the children, that is where the world will change. And so, we just focus on that.

Watch: Positive Vibes Only: Kalani Pe'a Whisks Us Away To Hawaii With A Feel-Good Performance Of "E Nā Kini"

Obviously, giving back and being of service is a big part of what you do, so what do you see as the connection between art and service?

Well, art is service. But as an individual person that does art, also outside of my art, even if I wasn't doing art, I would still be who I am. And so, what I do is just something that is in me, regardless of my art. Art in itself is a part of giving, right. I mean, it all depends on the individual. Generalizing, some people's art is for giving and some people's art as for taking. [Laughs.]

We have the art, that's a given, and we are giving individuals also, so it's like two like-minded forces coming together, me as a person and the art, coming together to give. It works in a full circle really, you get full service.

It's kind of the mindset you put in, going into creating your art.

Yeah, who you are goes into your art, right? for me, I don't pretend, my art isn't a pretending thing. I don't sing about things I've pretended to do, pretended to see. What I sing about comes out of my heartis in my art—is in my art.

Unearthing A Lost Ella Fitzgerald Recording, 60 Years Later

GRAMMYs

Skip Marley

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Skip Marley Sings "Slow Down" For Press Play skip-marley-asks-us-slow-down-press-play

Skip Marley Asks Us To "Slow Down" For Press Play

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For the latest episode of GRAMMY.com's Press Play series, the "My World" singer delivers a soulful acoustic rendition of "Slow Down"
Ana Monroy Yglesias
GRAMMYs
Sep 17, 2020 - 11:34 am

24-year-old Jamaican-born reggae artist Skip Marley, grandson of the legendary Bob Marley, grew up in the rich musical environment of his homeland and family, often touring with his uncles Ziggy and Stephen. In 2017, he collaborated with Katy Perry on her hit "Chained To The Rhythm," making him the first in his family to hit the Top 10 on Billboard's Hot 100.

Now, with "Slow Down" featuring R&B songstress H.E.R., the lead single from his August 2020 debut album, Higher Place, Skip has earned more accolades for his family name. He became the first Jamaican-born artist to snag a No. 1 on Billboard's Adult R&B chart and the track was the fastest and biggest streaming song from the Marley clan.

Watch Skip Marley Perform "Slow Down" | Press Play

Watch Another: G Herbo & Chance The Rapper Perform "PTSD" For Press Play

For the latest episode of GRAMMY.com's Press Play series, the "My World" singer delivers a soulful acoustic rendition of "Slow Down."

In Celebration Of Bob Marley: Late Reggae Hero’s 75th Birthday Commemorated With Special Releases & Events

Bob Marley

Bob Marley in 1973

Michael Putland/Getty Images

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In Celebration Of Bob Marley's 75th Birthday celebration-bob-marley-late-reggae-hero%E2%80%99s-75th-birthday-commemorated-special-releases

In Celebration Of Bob Marley: Late Reggae Hero’s 75th Birthday Commemorated With Special Releases & Events

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This year also marks the 40th anniversary of the timeless classic "Redemption Song"
Onaje McDowelle
GRAMMYs
Feb 5, 2020 - 4:42 pm

There are few artists whose legacy of activism, global impact and fostering human connection through music surpasses that of Jamaican-born reggae legend, Bob Marley. In celebration of the late musical and cultural icon's 75th birthday on Feb. 6, 2020, the Marley family will host a year-long run of events and releases in collaboration with UMe and Island Records.

Dubbed Marley75, the commemorative plans will include live events and the release of exclusive digital content, recordings and other "unearthed treasures" that are said to encompass music, fashion, art, film, technology and sport.

Kicking off Marley75's first of many live celebrations to come, this spring Marley's sons Ziggy and Stephen Marley will come together to perform an extensive selection of beloved Marley hits. They will headline Redondo Beach's immersive three-day music experience, The BeachLife Festival on May 1-3.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B735NTngg7l

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Related: Bob Marley's London Home Honored With English Heritage Blue Plaque

2020 also marks the 40th anniversary of Redemption Song," which appeared on Marley's final studio album, Uprising. Today, the Marley family and Island Records premiered a new music video for the track that features animations from over 2,700 original drawings by French artists Octave Marsal and Theo De Gueltzl. The video is inspired by Marley's homeland, Jamaica, and takes viewers inside the imaginary and self-reflective world of Marley's guitar while highlighting his messages of hope and empowerment.

In 2001, Marley posthumously received the GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award. His music has also received multiple entries into the GRAMMY Hall of Fame, as well as a 1994 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction. Nearly 25 percent of all reggae listened to in the United States can be credited to Marley's discography, according to a statement.

Additional information on Marley75 events has yet to be revealed. In the meantime, you can celebrate Marley's legacy by tuning in to his official YouTube account where upcoming content from the artist's estate archives will be posted throughout the year.

Bob Marley & The Wailers' 'Exodus' | For The Record

Ziggy Marley

Ziggy Marley

Photo: Steve Granitz/WireImage.com

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Father's Day: Ziggy Marley Talks Fatherly Advice ziggy-marley-talks-fatherly-advice-his-legendary-dad

Ziggy Marley Talks Fatherly Advice From His Legendary Dad

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In celebration of Father's Day, we sat down with the GRAMMY-winning reggae artist to find out what he learned from his iconic father and what his own children continue to teach him
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Jun 15, 2018 - 6:06 am

Ziggy Marley follows in the footsteps of one of music's most enduring and influential artists, his father, Bob Marley. Now a father himself, Ziggy reflects on the valuable lessons he learned from his own dad, not just the celebrated musician, but Bob Marley the man.

Ziggy Marley Talks Fatherly Advice

"I think for me what I learned from my father most [from] being around him is a way of having principles and living up to your principles and standing up for your principles," says Ziggy Marley. "His example is a good example for me. … Selflessness, charity, standing up for what you believe, and having principles. Spirituality too."

These days, Ziggy Marley is putting that example to use raising his own children, who he's very close with. In fact, the GRAMMY winner's latest album, Rebellion Rises, was made with his son Isaiah by his side throughout the process. As a father himself, Marley now knows a lifetime of learning goes both ways, from father to son and from child to parent.

"What I learn from my children: we all keep learning," says Marley. " I think they have opened my eyes to humanity more because learning from them that they're not just my children, but they're human beings and seeing how they grow and how they develop is really, to me, a lesson about creation and how magical this all is. … Patience, openness, humility. All of these things. Lots of lessons."

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Some of the content on this site expresses viewpoints and opinions that are not those of the Recording Academy. Responsibility for the accuracy of information provided in stories not written by or specifically prepared for the Academy lies with the story's original source or writer. Content on this site does not reflect an endorsement or recommendation of any artist or music by the Recording Academy.