Reggae singer Julian Marley says collaborating with latin acts is a strategic move to reach bigger audiences and spread the message of reggae music across regions.
Speaking exclusively with World Music Views, the Boom Draw singer said more specifically, the remix of the upbeat track “Roll” from his album Colors Of Royal featuring Argentinian singer Bahiano and Latin Grammy award winning producer Mr. Sonic was about breaking down barriers to find new audiences in Latin America.
“Yeah, it’s about spreading the message to all walks of life and breaking down all barriers, anywhere we get love. We always get a lotta love from the hispanics, from Brazil, South America, right cross to Cuba,” he said.
Colors Of Royal released by Monom Records March 23, 2023 also has a Pentagono remix of “The Tide Is High” cover, with latin producers Melo El Melodico and Ch Produciendo.
Latin remixes on a reggae album are not far-fetched says Julian, because his father Bob Marley is loved right across the region.
“When we check it out everybody loves Bob Marley, them love the freedom fighter cause they a freedom fighters also. They love the music and culture so its good to spread the message because we are always speaking to our own people,” the U.K. born singer said.
Bob Marley & The Wailers has 18.6 million monthly listeners on Spotify and Brazil, Mexico, and Chile are listed among the top five countries where people listen to his music on the platform.
Latin America has over 600 million people that speak over 400 different languages and Brazil, is the largest country in the region. According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) 2023 Global Music Report released March 21, the Latin American music market grew by 25.9% in 2022 as the music industry experiences an ‘8th consecutive year of growth’ globally.
WMV reached out to the respected group that is a leading voice of the recording industry worldwide for clarification on whether Jamaica is part of the region’s growth and they said, “The figure is for the overall Latin American region.” They further stated via email that, “We don’t currently split our data on Jamaica so we can’t confirm growth rate for that market specifically.”
However, as far back as 2014 the Marley brothers have been collaborating with latin artists. Ziggy Marley joined Mexican artist Santana – for “Iron Lion Zion” featuring ChocQuibTown. The guitar legend Santana perfomed the song with his eponymous band, Santana, at a live concert event titeld “Santana – Corazon, Live from Mexico: Live It to Believe It” recorded live before a sold-out audience at Arena VFG in Guadalajara, Mexico and aired on HBO Max.
Ky-Mani Marley is featured on string of latin-reggae tracks like YAYO by Papayo ft. Cuban-American artist Pitbull. His other feature on “Chillax” by Farruko is the most streamed latin song by A Marley on YouTube. The song has surpassed 800 million views on the platform and also has more than 300 million streams on Spotify. “Chillax” has been certified 6x Latin Platinum (36,000) by the Recording Industry Association Of America.
Ky-Mani’s other top latin reggae track on Spotify is “Bajito” with Jencarlos which has more than 54 million streams.
Photo credit: BASY
While “Celebration” by Maffio, Farruko, and Akon has been certified Latin Gold by the Recording Industry Association Of America (RIAA) for sales exceeding 30,000 units in the U.S.
Ky-Mani told WMV that although reggae comes from Jamaica and he is fully aware of where the roots, he too is one a mission to spread the message of positivity into other regions by working with more hispanophone artists.
“I come from the root of reggae music and for me that’s always the root but you don’t only have roots you have the bark and the branches, you have the leaves, you have the fruit. So being able to expand and to create in different genres while continuing to spread a positive message I think that’s all that matters. It doesn’t matter the genre of the music because the message is within the music,” he said.
Elsewhere, Damian Marley’s “Love With A Quality” with Columbia singer Karol G, produced by Ovy On The Drums has surpassed 100 million views on YouTube. Damian has also collaborated with Dominican-italian singer Yendry for the song “You.”
Stephen Marley’s collaborative track “Options” with Cuban-American rapper Pitbull has also surpassed 100 million views on YouTube.
