Exclusive Interview: Damian Marley
June 22nd, 2010 | By Big Dom
“Had you entered any village on Earth at around 3,000 B.C., the first person you met would probably be your ancestor,” notes Jotun Hein – a statistician at England’s Oxford University. It is a scenario that highlights just how interconnected we all are as a species. Those shallow roots of the human family tree also form the concept behind Distant Relatives, the celebrated collaborative album between reggae artist Damian ‘Jr. Gong’ Marley and rapper Nasir ‘Nas’ Jones.
Damian, the son of iconic reggae artist Bob Marley, phoned-in to Rhyme & Reason Magazine to discuss the lineage between hip-hop and reggae, forging a relationship with Nas, the myriad plights troubling their ancestral homeland of Africa, and the possibility of a follow-up to this chart-topping Distant Relatives project.
Can you explain the concept behind this Distant Relatives project?
The whole Distant Relatives concept is Nas and myself being distant relatives, all human beings being distant relatives, reggae and hip-hop being distant relatives. We’re just trying to show the common ancestry between our people and, especially, between the two genres of music.
Exploring that ancestry inevitable leads to discussions of Africa and this album raises awareness about many of the issues affecting the continent. What do you consider the biggest challenge facing Africa?
There’s no one challenge, really. There are a lot of different challenges and every one of them is as important as the other. Definitely, we know that education is something that would be very instrumental in overcoming these problems. Just in general, it would be great if Africans could start ruling their destiny and benefiting from their own land, resources and things of that nature. In terms of the problems of Africa, I don’t think that is something anyone is oblivious to. I think everyone is aware Africa has severe problems in all different forms.
With Africa as the focal point of the Distant Relatives album, how do you see this project affecting change in Africa?
Change starts with awareness. I don’t really have all the answers where that is concerned, but with this project we hope we raise some kind of conversation so that people can get together and really discuss some of the things that can be done. Like I was saying earlier, whatever can be done towards education, whether it is building a school or scholarships, books, whatever the case may be. Any contribution towards education is always something good.
Have you visited Africa?
I’ve been to Ethiopia and Ghana. It was great to finally reach these places I had heard so much about since I was a child. It was a great experience to actually go and see it in the flesh.
Your music has always had a sense of social responsibility about it. Do you feel a responsibility as an artist to highlight humanitarian and social issues through your music?
No. Really, as an artist my only responsibility is to entertain people, you know what I mean? It just so happens that that’s the kind of person I am, that those are the things I like to talk about. That just has to do with my personality. I really don’t think it’s the responsibility of an artist to have to highlight anything.
Your father certainly had that same consciousness to his music. Do you approach your own music with the intention of continuing your father’s work and legacy?
Yeah, definitely.
When did you first cross paths with Nas?
We first met in 1996. He was out on tour and my brothers and sisters were also on that tour. I had gone to watch a couple of shows and met him backstage briefly. It was just a brief introduction at that time.
What was your first impression of him?
He was cool. I liked his music and was familiar with his music, so it was an honor for me to meet him. At that time it was just a brief handshake and a hello. It wasn’t like we had a conversation, so I didn’t have a real impression of him at that time. But when he came to do some work on the Welcome to Jamrock album – when we did “Road to Zion” – that was really when we were able to have a conversation for the first time.
So how did your relationship escalate from collaborating on “Road To Zion” to now releasing a entire album together?
We always had the intention to do some more work and he invited me to be on one of the tracks on his album Hip-Hop is Dead - but it didn’t end up making the album. We spoke about trying to do some touring together back in those days, so we always had the intention to want to do some more work together. This particular project really came up because of our managements teams. They came up with the idea of us to do an EP based on Africa. That’s where it all came from.
What is a studio session like with Damian Marley and Nas?
Good vibes. We have a respect for each other and we’re mindful of that. We have great respect for each others opinions, so we just kind of stayed away from doing anything that everybody wasn’t excited about - or really, I should say we went with what everybody was excited about. For example, I would be in the studio and I might come up with a few jams and a few melodies or a few chorus ideas, and whichever one of those ideas I would see Nas liking and feeling excited about would be the ones that we would focus on and go into deeper. We didn’t force anything on each other.
Nas is regarded as one of the sharpest minds in hip-hop. Was it intimidating to be standing in the recording booth with him trading line-for-line?
Not intimidating, it was a very encouraging experience. The mere fact that Nas considered to do an EP - let alone an album - with me would mean that he respects me also. It was encouraging for me to know that my lyrics are being regarded highly by someone who I regard highly when it comes to their lyrics.
Is this Distant Relatives album a one-off project or will the two of you be heading back into the studio to record another album together?
Well, we have a lot of ideas right now for doing another one, but we haven’t started working on it, so I can’t really say.
How would you describe your connection with Nas at this point – having gone through the process of creating, touring and promoting this album together?
I would say we’re friends – and that’s something that’s actually one of the really good things that I’ve benefited from the experience of this album. Being able to be a fan of someone and then get to know them as a friend, that’s pretty nice. It’s a great thing.
Aside from Nas, you have worked with other hip-hop artists including the late Guru [of Gangstarr] - with whom you collaborated on Jazzmatazz Vol. 4. Were you surprised to hear of his passing earlier this year?
I was shocked to hear about the passing of Guru. I have a great deal of respect for Guru and the Gangstarr movement. He is a Hip-Hop legend. I did two projects with him; one for the Child of Babylon album, which was like a Bob Marley hip-hop remix album, and of course the track you’re talking about from his album. It was a great pleasure for me to be invited to contribute to his album and I send out love and strength to his family.
Collectively, your siblings have collected a swagger of Grammy Awards over the years - including three of your very own. Is there a competitive spirit amongst you all?
No, it’s more like inspiration than competition. When I see my brothers doing well it inspires me to want to do well also. It inspires me to say, ‘Okay, I’m going to get my thing together.’ Also, we very much work as a team. On this album Steven sings on a few tracks and he also produced a couple of tracks. He’s always produced my albums over the years, so we really build as a team.
You mentioned earlier that Distant Relatives was also made to show the ancestry between hip-hop and reggae music. What do you see as the similarities between the two genres?
They have a very similar spirit. They both really come from honest expression; neither genre holds punches – they say whatever they want to say, whether it might be something that will be seen as positive, negative, controversial, or whatever the case may be. It comes from very honest expression from people who are from the streets. If you check the beginning of both of these cultures, Hip-Hop has a lot of Reggae and Jamaican influence in its roots. In that sense they had a very similar beginning.
How often do you get to go back to Jamaica?
Not as much as I would like to.
Over 70 civilians have been killed in Jamaica over the past month as authorities hunt a local drug kingpin. What is your take on the situation?
It’s very unfortunate to see that that’s what’s going on right now. A lot of people have passed in the last few days. It’s very unfortunate to see that level of violence that’s going on there now and hopefully they will overcome it soon.
