Photo courtesy WME
For Ziggy Marley, music and family are inextricable. As the son of global music icon Bob Marley and the longtime frontman of the Melody Makers, his former band with siblings Stephen, Cedella and Sharon, he's always found these worlds to be one and the same.
This tradition continues with Marley’s newly issued seventh solo album, “Rebellion Rises,” The cover image is a photograph of the singer holding the hand of his naked son, Isaiah, now 2, as the pair stare at the ocean. His daughter, Judah, 13, shot the photo, in which his 6-year-old, Abraham, can also be seen wading in the background. His son Gideon, 11, makes a cameo of his own on “The Storm Is Coming,” the album’s second track.
“Usually with albums we take photo shoots, but we thought, ‘Let’s just put up a regular picture that we take as a family,’ ” Marley says of the cover photo, speaking via phone during a day off from touring in Wassertrüdingen, Germany. “I asked my wife if it was OK if I could use this one, and she said, ‘Sure, go ahead.’ ” It was only after selecting the picture as his album’s artwork that he found the meaning hidden within it. “The nakedness represents the truth, the naked truth. What we are seeing and being shown in the world right now is a truth that sometimes has been hidden.”
“Rebellion Rises” is perhaps Marley’s most political release, swapping some of the irie romanticism of albums such as “Young and Free” (which featured a cameo from his oldest son, Daniel, now a solo artist in his own right) and “Fly Rasta” for a sober, urgent tone befitting the times. The album opens with the self-explanatory “See Dem Fake Leaders” and closes with the title track, on which he sings of a new consciousness and hunger for truth.
“I feel there’s a lack of urgency within my community of human beings who have this type of dream or outlook,” he says. “This album, I tried not to be like, ‘Tomorrow will be better’ or ‘I hope.’ It’s not about a dream or a fantasy of what will be tomorrow, or how it’s gonna be a better day next year. It’s about: ‘Let’s take action now.’ ”
Music and children aren’t the only pursuits that have kept Marley occupied lately. In recent years, the Marley family business has grown to encompass a rapidly expanding network of international brands including House of Marley, a maker of sustainable headphones and Bluetooth speakers, and the cannabis brand Marley Natural. While Ziggy maintains only a peripheral, advisory role in those businesses, he individually owns Ziggy Marley Organics, a line of coconut oils. And he’s said to be involved, as executive producer, in an upcoming biopic on his father. However, he says, recent reports on the film’s development are a bit premature. “Somebody kind of jumped the gun and put it out there,” he says. “We’re in talks right now with Paramount. Once we have something to really announce, we will.”
Nearly four decades after Bob Marley died from complications from melanoma at age 36, his music feels more present than ever. That’s in no small part to the ongoing efforts of Ziggy and his numerous singing siblings, including Stephen, Damian, aka “Jr. Gong” (winner of last year’s reggae Grammy for "Stony Hill"), Ky-mani and Julian. No matter what day of the year, there is always a Marley performing somewhere. A third generation of Marley performers now includes Daniel, Ziggy’s oldest daughter, Zuri (who made her debut on “Freetown Sound,” the critically acclaimed 2016 album by Dev Hynes, aka Blood Orange) and Cedella’s son, Skip, who recently signed with Island Records.
“Even if I wasn’t a musician or, if they weren’t from a musical family, music [would be] a big part of my children’s education,” Marley says. He encourages his children to pursue their own passions whether that is science, sports or acting, as in the case of Judah, who recently appeared in her first film. “I need one really great soccer player,” jokes Ziggy, who, like his father, played the game competitively growing up in Jamaica.
Marley looks forward to exploring Richmond and its history, particularly that which relates to the Civil War. “I love history,” he says. “That’s what I do when I go to places I’ve never been before — just walk around and try and imagine what it was like back in the days, seeing an old building or how the streets used to look.”
Ziggy Marley comes to Innsbrook After Hours with Steel Pulse on Wednesday, Sept. 12. 4901 Lake Brook Drive, Glen Allen. 6 p.m. $27. 804-423-1779 or innsbrookafterhours.com.
