Ben Beaumont-Thomas 

Damian Marley: Stony Hill review – sweet, lamplit nothings and odes to weed

  
  

Damian Marley, Bob Marley’s youngest son.
Socially conscious lamentations … Damian Marley, Bob Marley’s youngest son. Photograph: PR Company Handout

While others in the Marley family carry on Bob’s name through premium headphones, gourmet coffee and decaffeinated tea, his youngest son continues to push reggae forward. Blockbuster trap production is put to skanking service on Here We Go, but there’s still room for classic roots on Looks Are Deceiving. Lyrically, it’s what you might expect, with odes to the medicinal properties of marijuana (Medication), lamplit sweet nothings (Grown and Sexy), and a string of socially conscious lamentations.

On epic digi-dub track Time Travel, he perhaps lets the paranoia induced by the aforementioned medication get to him, and lists Fifa and Madden video games alongside Isis and global warming in a list of contemporary ills. But his authoritative, melodious voice paints vexation on Roar and disappointment on Slave Mill in equally affecting brushstrokes, creating the kind of universally understood sociology his father specialised in.

Watch the video for Medication, featuring Stephen Marley



 

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