In an exclusive interview with WMV, reggae artist Julian Marley held nothing back when he said reggae music is lagging being and is in need of growth and development to be counted among the other genres of the world.
As the music industry continues to report record numbers, new Reggae music has seen a dip in weekly streams and sales for over the last 5 years with many acts struggling to make the U.S. Billboard charts with their new projects.
The Color Of Royal singer said, ‘what is Reggae music? What are we doing with reggae music? How many records need to be sold for reggae music to get into a Grammy, 2000? 3000? 4000? 5000?” he said.
While sales and streams won’t neccessarily impact Grammy nominations, Julian’s statement comes on the heels of Reggae legend Buju Banton‘s latest album “Born For Greatness” selling 2600 units in streams and sales according to data received by WMV by sales tracker Luminate. Of that amount 500 pure copies were sold and 2.2 million on-demand streams. The sales for the album released September 8 were not enough for Buju to make the weekly Billboard chart. This is the first time in the last 30 years that an album by Banton has not debuted on the chart.
The Boom Draw artist continued, “Reggae music still has to be lifted up once again. It’s great to be part of that, but that still nuh say nothing, we want some number 1.”
“Born For Greatness” is Buju’s Island DefJam Records/Roc Nation follow up to Upside Down 2020 which has sold 53,000 album sales equivalent units with SEA, with TEA according to data provided to WMV by Luminate. Of that amount 11,000 units were pure album sales equalling 62 million total on-demand streams (audio + video).
Meanwhile there is a ‘Reggae Rise Up’ Festival in Las Vegas set to be held October 5-7, 2023 which features Lila Ike as the single Jamaican act in a sea of headliners including Slightly Stoopid, Iration, Cypress Hill, Common Kings, for the Friday night. Citizen Cope and Matisyahu headline Saturday night, and Sublime, Rome and Dirty Heads are top billers for Sunday’s reggae showcase.
The event is part of a series of U.S. shows titled “Reggae Rise Up” which include a March 17-24 partially sold out concert in St. Petersburg Florida, Utah, as well as the Holo Holo music festival also in Las Vegas April 17 and 18 2024. None of those events have Jamaican reggae artists as headliners..
Rebel Salute Festival organizer Tony Rebel who has staged his event for 30 years told WMV that although reggae is taking shape among white bands and audiences in new markets, it is important for them to include artists from Jamaica.
“The roots of reggae is in Jamaica, so the branch without the root will fade overtime. If they don’t pay homage to Jamaica they can’t stand for long.
Beyond the charts, Julian stressed the importance of reggae to humanity.
“Reggae music is the only music that free the people, mentally, spiritually. Every other thing free your body. It make you dance, then you go in and the next day you wake up without an idea of how to face the world again. There is no more songs to help strengthen you, so reggae music is a very important music and I think something in that is God Blessed,” he said.
“It was made for the people all over, no matter where you come from,” Julian continued.
An IFPI 2022 ‘Engaging With Music’ report showed that Reggae is the 10th most favoured genre of music globally.
The music report findingds from the globally respected music meaurement organizatuon is based on a survey of more than 33 thousand respondents from several countries.
Reggae came in below genres like Country which comes in at No. 9 and Soundtracks which come in a No. 8.
Pop, Rock and Hip Hop took the top three positions respectively with Dance/Electronic , Latin, Classic/Opera , and R&B coming in at number 4,5,6 and 7 respectively.
Julian Marley’s latest album is Color Of Royal.
