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Why Bob Marley is more than a junk store weed ashtray

The commodification of the musician's prototype reduces the complex history and civilization of Jamaican reggae to the colours of the Ethiopian flag, a rasta hat and a blunt

On my first ever trip to Jamaica a few weeks dorsum, I was struck by how much Bob Marley is truly revered as a national hero in the state. His music is played everywhere, from the resorts in Negril to the dusty streets of Kingston. I wasn't exactly brought up on Bob Marley'southward music, just his songs sound similar old friends in their familiarity – my parents, both musicians, played Marley's music with at least some regularity, and songs similar "Jammin'" and "One Love" (equally well as slightly more obscure records like "Easy Skanking") are interwoven with my babyhood memories. In my teens, a remix of "Is This Love" made the rounds, becoming the soundtrack to those heady, intense days yous tin just experience when you're 14 or 15 and drinking alcohol for the beginning time. As a sort of preparation for my visit to Jamaica, I listened to more reggae and ska than usual, and I as well did a bit of research into Marley, who is now i of my favourite musicians.

The fact that it'due south been so like shooting fish in a barrel for me, particularly equally a millennial with access to a figurer, to gain what I believe to be a decent understanding of Marley's music, history, and ethos, ways that there's little excuse for the overtones that currently environment his image. I don't claim neat bureau over the country's civilization, despite my heritage, but my worry is that the continued commodification of Marley's image by his estate is reducing the complex history and culture of Jamaican reggae that I witnessed while in the country to the colours of the Ethiopian flag, a rasta hat, and, of course, a thick, ashy edgeless. When Snapchat constitute themselves under fire for choosing to celebrate 'marijuana holiday' 420 by providing a filter of Bob Marley's face up, I was unsurprised. Non only did the filter modify people's selfies into what was essentially digital greasepaint, Snapchat's tech bros didn't consider the fact that by working with Marley'southward estate on the projection they were contributing to the continued 'ashtrayification' of the reggae star.

"The continued commodification of Marley's image by his estate is reducing the complex history and culture of Jamaican reggae... to the colours of the Ethiopian flag, a rasta hat, and, of course, a thick, ashy blunt"

Afterward a celebrity's expiry, it's a natural inclination to focus on the controversial or iconic things about them – Elvis' quiff, for example, is arguably more recognisable than many of his songs despite how foundational they were to rock'n'roll. And there's no denying that Marley was an advocate of 'the herb'. His religion, Rastafarianism, sees that the plant is revered and smoked in a spiritual context, and his 1978 anthology Kaya revolved around marijuana. In its title track, Marley sings gently, "I'm so high, I even touch the sky / Above the falling rain / I feel so proficient in my neighbourhood, so / Hither I come again". It's more than likely that he, along with swain Wailer Peter Tosh (songwriter of weed canticle "Legalise Marijuana"), would have been ecstatic to encounter the herb decriminalised in Jamaica concluding year on what would have been Marley's 70th birthday.

Yet it wasn't the thing that defined him. Bob Marley died in 1981 aged 36. When he was still alive, his music was surely what made him stand out; music which he slaved over, standing to bout the world up until a few months earlier his death. Music which landed him hit single after hit unmarried beginning in the 1960s, when he began his career in a band reminiscent to the groomed American quintuplet, The Temptations. Too, his songs are deeper than many give them credit for. Hits like "Buffalo Soldier" (which speaks of a man "stolen from Africa, fighting for survival"), and "Redemption Song" (where Marley quotes Marcus Garvey: "Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves tin can free our minds") reveal his Pan-Africanism idea and reverberate the struggles he had with managing his identity in the shade of slavery – struggles that then many black people accept been through, myself included.

He also held anti-capitalist behavior, once telling an interviewer "my richness is life, forever", and according to 1 Jamaican Rasta I met, would give poor strangers who came to his business firm "enough money to start a small business organisation". This makes the calculated monetisation of his estate even more troublesome. In 2022 he was the quaternary highest-earning deceased celebrity, above Marilyn Monroe and John Lennon. A year before, Bob Marley-branded marijuana Marley Natural was launched. "My dad would be so happy to see people understanding the healing power of the herb," said Cedella Marley, Bob'southward daughter at the time, calling it an "authentic manner to award his legacy by adding his voice to the conversation virtually cannabis and helping end the social harms caused past prohibition." But, as Dotun Adebayo said, writing in The Guardian, "in that location are millions of other people around the world who have enjoyed a good puff who exercise not suffer the discredit of having their name and achievements reduced to standard-bearer for dopeheads worldwide – Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger to name but two." Former bandmate Bunny Wailer also told the Jamaican Gleaner at the time that "the Marley Natural deal must be publicly opposed", adding that Marley wasn't as committed to legalisation as other members of the Wailers.

"In 2022 (Bob Marley) was the fourth highest-earning deceased celebrity, above Marilyn Monroe and John Lennon. A year before, Bob Marley-branded marijuana Marley Natural was launched"

Settling downward to watch 2012 documentary Marley (which is supposedly a definitive piece of work, though it has been criticised for defective depth and nuance), I learn that he grew upward in St. Annes before moving to Trench Boondocks in Kingston. That he went to bed hungry often, and that his three loves were music, cricket, and football. That later in life, despite his shyness, he was a serial womaniser. When I visit the Bob Marley Museum in Kingston, Jamaica, our guide – a young Rasta named Leon who is a reggae musician himself – tells us proudly that, similarly to Bob, he already has five children, more than on the way. The walls of the museum are plastered with silver, gold, and platinum records and awards from all over the world – some for Marley'south records, some for the efforts of his sons, Damian, Ziggy, and Stephen.

At the museum I also learn that Marley was mixed race white and Jamaican similar me, and "more than teased, he was rejected" for it, as Bunny Wailer puts it in Marley. My bout guide Leon explains that Marley merely met his white male parent, Norval, in one case or twice before he died in the 1950s, and that the framed flick of him shown in the museum is the only one known to have been taken. I empathize with his plight, and his difficulty in finding a place for himself. Marley is quoted as having said "My begetter is a white, and my mother is a black, dem call me a one-half caste or whatsoever. Meh no dip on the black human's side, me no dip on the white side."

The documentary suggests that he plant himself as a Rastafarian, and besides, despite his words, identified far more with his blackness than he ever did his 'white side'. A well-worn dashiki and hobbling-looking map of Africa are besides proudly displayed in the museum. Though, funnily enough, Marley seemingly spent some of his happiest years in the UK, where he moved 'in exile' subsequently he was nearly killed in a shootout. All the same, it was as well in the UK that he realised he was ill with melanoma, a blazon of skin cancer that was first identified subsequently he injured his toe playing football. (Next to the dashiki in the museum hangs a pair of his 'football shorts' – some frayed cut-off jeans.)

"For me... far more than weed, what shaped Marley's life was his mixed-heritage identity"

"They test it and they find out that it was more similar a white person sort of sickness, it wasn't from a black source. It was the whiteness in him that allow it to get this bad," says his wife Rita Marley in the flick. I could be projecting, just if annihilation, what the documentary cements for me is that, far more than weed, what shaped Marley'south life was his mixed-heritage identity – information technology bled into his music and could possibly be held answerable for his head-commencement fall into Rastafarianism.

Regardless, it would be such a shame if all this were lost – the debates to exist had around his music. My intention when I got to the isle-nation was to detect out more than about Marley, his life and his music and I certainly achieved that. As well equally going to the museum, once the accost where the Wailers ready upwardly their tape label, Tuff Gong, I besides partied in Trench Boondocks and learned more about Rastafarianism. But I didn't fume any joints in his laurels.