Ziggy Marley‘s “True To Myself” has surpassed 100 million streams on Spotify. It is the Grammy winning reggae singer’s first song achieve the milestone. Overall the The Tuff Gong Worldwide CEO has surpassed 570 million streams on Spotify across all credits.
True To Myself was a single from Ziggy’s first solo album Dragon Fly released on March 31, 2003 by Tuff Gong in Jamaica and German record label BMG globally. The song was produced by five time Grammy winner Ross Hogarth and Ziggy.
The 54 year old who is the heir apparent to reggae’s throne has won the most Grammys for the genre and has been nominated a total of 15 times at the Grammys making him the reggae artist with the most nominations. Still, as much as he has collected awards in the music industry, he told WMV that he owns his masters. He said being independent is at the heart of who he is as an artist.
“This is the dream of mankind to be free and independent. My father them started out that way. We come grow see Bob a hustle a press some T-Shirt yahsuh so that seed plant in us that way. So me grow up innah that brain washing deh “You haffi own your own shit bro.”
Born David Nesta Marley, he said it is the example of his father who was a serial entrepreneur that gave him the spirit of ownership.
“It’s not for everyone, you haffi have that spirit of adventure in you. Me lucky, I have Bob as me father who paved the way but me nuh take it as luck because me grow up in it too around that vibe and energy.”
“It’s strictly independent. My wife is the business mind and everyone need the right people around them. When it comes to the music I am the creative and consciousness and she is the business, its a good balance and that’s how it really work. You need help and you need people smarter than you,” he added.
Marley recently landed a role in the Spider-man Across The Universe Motion Picture voicing the character of a shop keeper ‘Lenny,’ a store owner who bravely confronts a robber. It was the Tomorrow People artist’s second time voicing an animated character in a major film, as he previously portrayed Ernie the shark in the 2004 film “Shark Tale.”
No stranger to animation, he has done several animated music videos for his reggae songs. In 2016 he animated Butterflies, and 2018 he did Rebellion Rising.
Watch Ziggy Marley’s exclusive interview with World Music Views on YouTube.
