Record of 2004
WELOME TO JAMROCK
DAMIAN ‘JR. GONG’ MARLEY
(GHETTO YOUTHS UNITED)
The boon/curse of having a famous parent must be exaggerated several
fold when it comes to reggae, a music closely linked with the lot of
the downtown ‘sufferer’- and even more so when your father is as
celebrated as Bob Marley. Nevertheless, Damian ‘Jr. Gong’ Marley
made the important choice to avoid simply taking advantage of being a
scion of reggae royalty. Though not above recording with US
R&B luminaries like Bobby Brown and Mariah Carey, he associated
himself as closely as he could with the West Kingston dancehall by also
linking up with such hardcore acts from that arena as Capleton (“It Was
Written”, 2000), Bounty Killer (“Educated Fools”, 2001) and Spragga
Benz (“Master Blaster”, 2003 ). He then managed to score one of
the biggest international crossover successes ever enjoyed by a
Jamaican singer or deejay.
True “Welcome To Jamrock” could not boast of being entirely original,
sampling as it did Ini Kamoze’s “World A Music” from twenty years
before; but that in itself placed the tune in one of that most central
of reggae traditions, that of the ‘version’, as did his decision to
deejay rather than sing. For all the global acclaim the single
eventually received (# 13 the UK pop chart, #55 in the US one), it
remains first and foremost an unashamed product of dancehall culture,
demonstrating how compromises are not always necessary in finding that
elusive global yearned for by most Jamaican performers. And it remains
the most hard-edged roots tune, in both lyrics and rhythm, ever to
achieve real mainstream success on a global scale.
Peter Dalton
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