Stephen Marley: The Legacy Lives

Reggae legend storms the States with Mind Control.
Johnny Firecloud, CraveOnline
March 27, 2007

Stephen Marley has been making and producing music with his siblings for years, most notably on brother Damien Marley's Grammy-winning 2005 album Welcome to Jamrock. This month marks the hotly anticipated release of Stephen's first solo album, Mind Control, and he's set to begin an extensive North American tour this week.

In a phone interview with CraveOnline, Marley discusses Mind Control, carrying on the Marley name, and why Anna Nicole might still be alive if she smoked a little ganja.

Advance reviews of Mind Control have been very positive, so this has to be an exciting time for you.

Yeah, it’s a good feeling, man.

You’ve helped produce so many albums for other people – why did you decide now was the time to make your own album?

Well, there’s noone else left in my family, everyone is looking at me now. ‘Okay, your time to bat,” you know? Some of these songs I’ve had for a while, some are new.

Why the title Mind Control?

There’s a song on the record called ‘Mind Control’, and that was the most important message I had on this body of work. I wanted to put that up front.

How would you describe the album?

It’s a balanced record, I think, of old vibes and new vibes on it. It’s a fruit basket. I gave you a fruit basket. If you want a passion fruit, it’s in there, man.

You worked with Mos Def on 'Hey Baby'. That was released a couple years ago… will the same version appear on the album?

No, no, the version that was released a couple years ago.. this one is totally different. I went back and re-did the drum beat. The first one was kind of more synthetic. This one has a wah-wah guitar and more of a more alive, earthly tone.

How did you get involved with him?

Damien did the Alicia Keys show, and he was a part of that show. And then he came to Miami to do our show which was the Bob Marley fest concert that we keep here in Miami every year. We kind of became friends. We was always fans of his music, you know? From his old school stuff from back when him and Talib play. So we’re always fans, and becoming friends just made it easier.

'Iron Bars' seems to be about a man imprisoned for smoking weed –

(laughs)Yeah, me. It’s about me, and let me tell you, me and my brother Julian, we were together when that incident happened. We were speaking about ourselves, yes.

What happened?

Damien’s second album was just out. That’s the one that he won the first Grammy for. We usually go out and support each other’s first shows, we go and kick it off together. So we went out to New Orleans, and coming back from New Orleans we were driving through Tallahassee to get to Miami and some police pulled us over, find a little bit of marijuana, you know. Not too much (laughs)… and the whole incident.. they carried we off to jail and they lock we up and all of that stuff. So that’s what influenced the song, you know what I mean?

How do you feel about this country’s marijuana laws?

I think it sucks, really. You know, as far as, while me say that, I’m not an advocate of just smoking, I’m promoting the many things you can do with it on personal use. But at the same time, once they are promoting alcohol and stuff like that, then I’d have to promote this plant. It’s more natural I feel, and have many different uses than just smoking. That is one of the many reasons why I do marijuana songs every now and again. We have to educate the people.

Seems so evil in this country..

And pharmaceuticals! This lady that passed away, Anna whatever…Anna Nicole, she overdose on some pharmaceutical thing. You have to educate the people. If she were smoking some herb, I know she’d be here today.

You’ve been a very successful producer and collaborator, winning five Grammys, but to the mainstream you really seemed to step out of your father’s shadow with ‘Welcome to Jamrock’. The song was everywhere and stood on it’s own.

True, true.

You’ve been credited for bringing the legacy of the Marley name to the present. What does that feel like?

It makes you feel accomplished, like you are doing your part as they say, you know what I mean? For making sure that his legacy lives on. It’s by right. I’m not doing anything hard, really. It takes no great effort being us, you know what I mean? And when we say us, it is because I am only part of something. Even though I am the head, I couldn’t do it without the body. So you know, us being us still.

Heavy responsibility?

Good responsibility. If I was a carpenter and I was trying to maintain my father’s musical legacy, then I guess it would be a burden because it wouldn’t be natural to me to be dealing in music when my natural ability is in woodwork or whatever. But because my natural talent is also music, it kind of makes it much easier. The atmosphere is not like I get up today and say ok I have to carry on the legacy, let me go into the studio. I’m just being the son of Bob, and just being myself, you know? And that is the result.

You’re starting a North American tour this weekend.

The first show is tomorrow in Atlanta. Some shows got added.
I want to reach the people. This music is the people’s music. It’s music for your brain, for your heart, for your soul. That is what we always go to achieve. Soul united. Music does so many things bro, you know what I mean? In 1980 I was in Zimbabwe with my father for the liberation of the people of Zimbabwe. For independence from the British. When I went there, the freedom fighters, them called guerillas, they came to see my father with their big guns. And my father said to me ‘You know what a guerilla is?’ and I thought, yeah, a monkey, an animal. And him say ‘No, these are the guerillas that you hear about. These are the animals.’ So music is very powerful because they came and told him that when they were fighting, “Redemption Song” was the song that carried them through. It was just powerful. The music is powerful, is what I’m trying to say.

Bob Marley name still carries a lot of weight. Confused message.

They know his name, but a lot of youth don’t really know his works. They know Game and they know the people that influence them today. You can’t ever have a next Bob. So you know, we still have to give them a chance to remember Bob.

Will you play any of your father’s songs on the tour?

Definitely. Bob Marley songs are my songs. These are the songs that have been passed on to me. Let me say, I wear my family crest, and I represent my family to the fullest.

How would you describe the relationship between hip hop and reggae right now?

We are cousins. We are parallel music. It’s just our pronunciations and stuff are different. Hip-hop music tell about the life of the culture of these people that live a certain life. Where in Jamaica, reggae music, we have the same time of life. What you call projects, we call tenement yards. Back when my father said ‘In a government yard in Trenchtown’, it’s the government housing there.

What do you do when you’re not making music?

When we’re not making music we’re playing soccer a lot. I live at the studio, you know? My room is here. I’m always dealing in music, really.

You’ll be out of the studio on tour, do you plan on…

On the contrary, on the contrary (laughs), we have a studio on the bus. With vocal booth and everything. I do a lot of work on the road. Creative-wise, you might get a lot of influences, but you might not get a lot of head space. But there’s a lot of juices flowing, because of the concert, you come back into the bus, and the vibe, you capture that, you know what I mean? You capture a lot of spontaneous things that become great things later on.

Music that would surprise?

Nina Simone… I listen to country and western, I don’t know if that’s a surprise. Kenny Rogers. We listen to them people. In Jamaica, all we had was the radio. We only had one tv station, and it would sign off early back in the seventies. That’s why in Jamaica we have so many influences. If you notice even with the Wailers, the early Wailers, it was a lot of the Temptations and that type of singing style as a group. We’re always influenced by American music.

What message would you most like to get across?

Well, I mean, we try to raise awareness, you know. There is no one particular message. In this album, we’re focused on your mind. And you know how them say the mind is a terrible thing to waste. Your mind is the channel of it all. It feeds your soul, your heart, everything. It comes from your thoughts. The kind of person you are comes from the way you think. And it bleeds into the way you feel. And such forth.
If the mind is not free, then we won’t be free. But there’s no one message here bro. We are one human family. We are the family of the human race, which you are my brother. Not by blood maybe, but we are one as a human race. And we are here to live together and live the best that we can live. Together.

That’s my time, but thanks so much for the interview. Best of luck on tour.

Yeah man, thank you. So will we be seeing you when we come to California?

When you come around, I’ll definitely be there.

Yeah man, let’s burn one. Take care.