If Bob Marley’s progeny were so inclined, they could enjoy lucrative musical careers and plush lifestyles simply by drawing from his iconic catalog of reggae standards over and over again. While Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley and Stephen “Ragga” Marley certainly haven’t shied away from their father’s repertoire, they—like their siblings and, increasingly, their own offspring—have done something even greater to further his legacy: establish legacies of their own.
Bob’s second-oldest and youngest sons joined forces on Sunday to headline the 22nd annual Reggae Night at the Hollywood Bowl. Though they paid plenty of homage to their family’s sonic estate, they also served a strong reminder that they have charted their own course for the present and future of reggae music.
After a vibrant opening set by Mykal Rose and Subatomic Sound System, the Marley brothers stampeded onstage to the sound of their father’s voice as an introduction to Damian’s “10,000 Chariots”. With Flagman Judah waving at their backs, Damian and Stephen took turns pulling tracks from their own discographies while sprinkling in a smattering of their father’s fan favorites.
It didn’t hurt that Stephen and Damian have so many songs they created together. That made selections like Stephen’s “The Traffic Jam”, “Tight Ship”, “Cast The First Stone”, “Jah Army”, and “The Mission” all the more fitting since each already included a feature from his younger brother. Of course, Damian has repaid Stephen that favor with his own music many times, and it showed at the Bowl. From “All Night” and “Still Searchin’” to “It Was Written” and “Medication”, the youngest brother made ample space for his elder brother.
Stephen Marley, Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley — “Medication” — 8/4/24
[Video: tuneesq]
At those points, and everywhere else, the two Marleys played their roles to a tee. Stephen held it down with a silky facsimile of his father’s famous singing voice, while Damian brought his more hip-hop-infused reggae and dancehall style to bear.
That division of musical labor was true even when digging into their father’s songs. Whether opining about “So Much Trouble in the World”, painting a picture of a “Pimper’s Paradise”, inviting the audience to a “Punky Reggae Party”, or just plain “Jamming”, Stephen held down his dad’s parts while leaving room for Damian to infuse the classics with his own fresh, flowing inflections. Not that Damian sat back and left his older brother to handle all of Bob’s lyrics. Damian took the vocal lead on “Is This Love”, lending a decidedly grittier texture to the otherwise angelic anthem.
It was with his own works, though, that Damian reminded the crowd that he, too, is a generational reggae icon. The five-time Grammy Award winner served such notice with back-to-back tracks from his seminal 2005 album Welcome to Jamrock. He trotted out “Road to Zion”, with Stephen on chorus vocals, before bringing the whole house to its feet for that LP’s title track, which may well be one of the most impactful reggae songs of the last 20 years.
But as much as “Welcome to Jamrock” has done to establish “Jr. Gong” as his own entity of note in the music world, on this night, it also helped set the stage for the next generation of Marley musical magic. That song, along with Stephen’s “Rock Stone”, elicited cameos from Stephen’s son Elijah. The teenaged Marley wasn’t at all taken aback by the size of the stage or the crowd—which tracks with his father’s credentials as an eight-time Grammy winner among one of the most famous musical families on Earth. Nonetheless, Elijah acquitted himself more than well enough to suggest that there may be standalone musical success in his future, just as there has been for his cousins Skip Marley and YG Marley.
To close out the night, Stephen, Damian, and their band returned to Bob’s songbook with “Exodus”, followed by an encore of “Could You Be Loved” that included bits of “Jungle Fever”.
This show at the Hollywood Bowl may have been the last for this leg of Stephen and Damian’s tour, but there is still a steady supply of Marley mania to come in 2024. After five of his shows in Europe across mid-August, Damian will return to North America to join Stephen and three of their brothers—Ziggy Marley, Julian Marley, and Ky-Mani Marley—under the banner of The Marley Brothers for the month-long, 22-date Legacy Tour.
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