By: Vinette K. Pryce
Damian Marley’s “Welcome To Jamrock” scored credibility the first week it was released when it entered the Billboard Top 200 charts at number seven, a record entrance for any reggae artist in history.
Selling to the largest figures ever reported for a reggae artist – 85,588 -- the CD on its first outing in Britain also won the top honor three days later at their alternative to the Grammy Awards, the Music Of Black Origin (MOBO) at the Royal Albert Hall.
Taking the best reggae act category, Damian Marley stepped up to collect his first MOBO and later thrilled the crowd with a stirring performance.
‘Damian mash up the place,” Melissa C. Sinclair, Publisher of Gargamel Magazine said. “It was the first time they (MOBO) had ever had a live performance by a reggae artist, and they (the audience) gave him the biggest love of any performer. He was mad crazy. I am glad I went. He is great.”
On a night when his father, Robert Nesta Marley received a posthumous lifetime achievement honor, the Junior Gong spoke truth to power a people he is convinced is deprived of a voice.
On a single released almost one year ago, “Welcome To Jamrock” packaged his third studio album and for its debut fired back what could be perceived as a diatribe.
Presenting an assaulting contrast to the Jamaica Tourist Board commercials, the track goes beyond the reggae icon’s anthem of “One Love,” its invitation to “come to Jamaica and feel alright,” to offer: “Out in the street they call it murrr-der.”
That prologue is enough to perk any ear to listen to what follows.
Sounding like a young salesman selling the island’s afternoon newspaper in Kingston “Sssstar,” the voice alerts listeners to tune into the latest news.
“Welcome To Jamrock” follows like a State Department advisory.
And when the resident Gong reels off his breaking story, it is sobering details, familiar to the masses, but definitely a new perspective for every vacationing visitor.
“When Trench Town man stop laugh and block off traffic…police come inna jeep and dem cyan stop it…poor people ah dead at random…political violence cyan dun…to see di suffration sick me…’nuff lickle youths have fatmatic…with di extra magazine inna dem back pocket…and from now till ah mornin’ nuh stop cock it…”
It is riveting.
Well worth a listen and better yet told by a young gun who could be regarded as credible.
Out of the same boom-boxes his elders monotonously, blasts Babylon, here is a different take on life in paradise, one that the majority is familiar, one that underscores the crime statistics of Jamaica ranking third highest with murders in the world, yet one denied for fear of deterring tourists.
Junior Gong cautions listeners to what transpires on some beaches, some roadways, and along the path of many youths.
“Welcome To Jamrock” is the title track of a 14-song compilation the label released in the USA Sept. 13.
It dropped a week later in Britain.
Passionately appealing for an ear, the lyrics beg for an audience.
Throughout the beat digs deep into every soul and the infectious lyrics register like Baghdad bombs.
Patriots lament their land and its future, fans of the genre rewind for clarification and new buyers tune for a lesson they were never before sold.
When the track trails toward an end, Junior Gong’s love for his island punctuates the shattering news – “Jamaica, Jamaica.”
As if calling for calm, peace and the same “One Love” his father promoted, the track end on an up-ful note.
Months before the album filled the shelves, the single garnered notices.
Making stops to Central Park Summerstage Jack Johnson concert, an IRIE Jamboree in an outer borough, and on Labor Day parading along Brooklyn’s Eastern Parkway, the Gong sealed his sales with an in-store on the night before the release by showcasing a set at the Virgin Mega Store in Union Square, Manhattan.
The deejay and his brother Stephen must have collaborated to opine on other issues. Together they offer a real, honest, introspective on the birthplace of reggae to find rock residents freed from the kind of denial holding them hostage at the demise of the voiceless.
“Welcome To Jamrock” is taking Junior Gong and the Ghetto Youths on a road tour from St. Petersburg, Florida starting on Nov. 3 and ending in Norfolk, Virginia on Dec. 6.
It is apparent tourists want to know the other side of Jamaica, the side they rarely see.
Here’s what some Insiders are saying about the GONG and the song:
