The albums Set In Stone and World On Fire have been in the top 10 of the Billboard Reggae chart for over 2 years. They belong to the reggae band Stick Figure. This week the California band’s 7th full length studio album “Wisdom” [Ruffwood Records] released just in time for the Grammys September deadline replaced Legend: The Best Of Bob Marley & The Wailers [Island Def Jam] as the no. 1 album on the Billboard Reggae Albums Chart.
The band has been covering and integrating the ingredients of traditional reggae music while managing to remain non-threatening and away from “Babylon burning” topics traditionally covered by reggae musicians. They draw their influence from reggae pioneers such as King Tubby and Barrington Levy and mix it with their California flavor.
Their 2015 album Set in Stone, peaked at number 65 on the Billboard Top 200, number one on Heatseakers, number seven on Independent, and number one on the Reggae album charts. Burial Ground covered Gregory Isaacs’ Hard Drugs, and samples Bob Marley’s ‘stiff-necked fools’ on the track Women of the Night, which featured Half Pint.
Their 2019 album “World on Fire” sold 10,000 units in its first week and has so far sold over 300,000 copies in the U.S. including streaming equivalents, according to Luminate (Formerly Neilson/MRC Data). You may or may not know a Stick Figure song but their growing catalog has now sold over one million copies and has been streamed over three billion times. This cannot be attributed to their online popularity because collectively across their social media Stick Figure the band has less than 400,000 followers. Still, they tour extensively in the U.S. with reported concert ticket sales averaging “4,200 tickets sold per show on an almost entirely sold out 2022 tour”, according to Pollstar.
Billboard also reported that they moved 24,000 tickets in Colorado.
The majority of the sales and streams for their latest album “Wisdom” come from iTunes and Apple Music and it has been number 1 on the iTunes reggae album chart for 14 days. “Wisdom“ slipped from its no. 25 peak to no. 31 on the iTunes U.S.(all genres) charts and debuted at no. 31 on iTunes Switzerland. The album has not charted or gained any significant traction on Spotify, but it has sold as of September 15, 34,900 units in total (including 32.3 million streams).
The frontman for Stick Figure is the self taught instrumentalist Scott Woodruff who says he got his inspiration and style of making music from genre mixing American singer Keller Williams.
Mixing genres is nothing new, but it has become more common among artists who are finding chart success as streaming becomes more integrated and the industry adopts a more global focus. Rvssian, Stefflon Don and Sean Paul have all extended themselves in this regard and have seen global success with their music.
Other members of the Stick Figure band include keyboardist Kevin Bong, drummer Kevin Offitzer, bassist Tommy Suliman and keyboardist, backup vocalist and guitarist Johnny Cosmic. The band even has its own dog Cocoa, who sort of doubles as a media darling and perhaps helps with their appeal to the buying public who stream the records.
On Pandora they have 806 Million lifetime streams across their catalog with only Collie Budzz, Shaggy, Rebelution, Sean Paul & Bob Marley streaming more than them as reggae artists. For those unfamiliar with their music, their top songs are “All For You” and “Sound Of The Sea”.
Many roots reggae fans may not know a Stick Figure jam but the group is taking advantage of new markets for reggae music on the west coast of America. More importantly their impressive numbers are reflective of proper organization, targeted marketing and sales strategies with a brand of feel good, post modern reggae.
