![]() Hip-hop fans will bump to "Pimpa's Paradise" featuring Stephen Marley and Black Thought of the Roots as Nas rips his verse on "Road to Zion", while classic reggae heads will spark to the rugged sound of "Khaki Suit" which features the combo of Bounty Killer and Eek-A-Mouse. We're trying to do the whole mix." This is that mix-never content to deliver a straightforward "reggae" album, Jr Gong touches on various sides or urban life as we live it today, from the smoky spiritual love ballad "There For You" to the nostalgic throwback jam "The Master Has Come Back". We're not just trying to do a segment of the mix. "Dancehall, r&b, hip-hop…it's more about feelings. Sometimes you have to wear camouflage to really get in there," says Jr Gong of the diverse appeal of the album. ![]() That essence is spread throughout the album, even when he switches pace and explores different riddims. Following the path blazed by its title track, Welcome To Jamrock opens with the devastating attack of "Confrontation"-this is Jr Gong at his best, rhyming with the conviction of a street preacher and the intellect of a university economist. This is street music, and the streets have to feel it." Hear the album and you instantly understand it to be the work of a perfectionist Jr Gong is not focused on overnight success. "But it will be great to see reggae win Album Of The Year…it's not about one man shut off from the rest of the crabs in the barrel." So while slow-burners like "It was Written" and "Educated Fools" became club classics, Jr Gong was laying the groundwork for the tracks that would become Welcome To Jamrock-an album that was ultimately several years in the making. ("A Grammy in reggae is good," he observes. ![]() He made noise early on with 1996's Mr Marley, and his major label debut Halfway Tree showcased a unique gift for blending hard-hitting reality rhymes and an uncommonly eclectic musicality with a classic reggae sensibility at its core and run through with streams of hip-hop, r&b and dancehall, the album resonated with urban tastemakers and won a Grammy for Best Reggae Album in 2001. Jr Gong has been honing his skills-not so quietly-for some time. "I spent a lot of time thinking and this is the fruit of that labor," explains the youngest child of the musical Marley family."The song might be a 'success' so why be blind to that? But success can't surprise given the time put into it." The song is about the farthest thing from commercial music offerings today-an outraged and unapologetic description of the poverty and "political violence" ravaging his homeland of Jamaica-but "Welcome To Jamrock" hit-and hit hard-because it's the sound of truth and the result of years of work to bring that truth to light. When "Welcome To Jamrock" erupted onto airwaves and blew apart iPods halfway through 2005 it came as a shock to some-but not to Damian "Jr Gong" Marley. ![]()
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