Features

Damian Marley and Nas: Roots, Rap, Reggae!

Fresh from the pages of our July issue, here’s a look at the collaboration between Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley and Nas

As summer festivals go, few can test one’s endurance like Reggae Sumfest, Jamaica’s biggest annual music event. Forget the epic late-night sets or the drug-fueled early morning dance-offs at summer music festivals, the popular performers at Sumfest—be they the kings and queens of the dancehall, romantic crooners like Beres Hammond or rasta mainstays like Burning Spear—don’t even approach the stage until well after midnight, and headliners either begin or finish their set in pure daylight, at which point all one really needs is sleep, not music.

That said, those early morning sets can be the thing of legend, and to take the stage as the sun is rising is a huge honor for homegrown talent. If the privilege is usually reserved for the island’s most established stars, at last year’s Sumfest, the Saturday night/Sunday morning headliner slot went to Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley, the youngest offspring of Bob Marley, for whom the moment was something of a crowning achievement.

“I remember being a little boy and watching Dennis Brown and these guys going on at this time,” says Damian, whose profile within the reggae world and beyond has mushroomed with the crossover success of 2005’s Welcome to Jamrock. “And, last year, I was onstage seeing the same things myself, thinking, ‘_Shit_, this is where I’m at now? I used to watch my heroes do this. This is my dream coming true.’ Some of the time, it’s hard for me to even grasp.”

Sharing the stage with Damian that morning in Montego Bay was friend and collaborator Nas, the Queens-bred MC who, like Jr. Gong, has established himself not only as a star within his own genre, but also as one who is eager to push the music envelope. In different ways, both Nas and Marley do just that with their long-awaited and recently released album, Distant Relatives.