Does he have a new album coming out soon? Could it be better than his last one? I love that one...
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If you want to stand out, don't be different, be outstanding

Never heard of him until I googled him and found out this...

DAMIAN 'JR GONG' MARLEY - Dealing with everyday Jamaican reality
Entertainment By Olivia Campbell Observer staff writer
Friday, December 10, 2004

At times, Damian 'Jr Gong' Marley looks so much like his father, reggae icon Bob Marley, that it's almost eerie. Yet, a quick listen to Jr Gong's music - like his latest single Jamrock - and there's no mistaking them.

Jr Gong When the Observer caught up with Jr Gong recently he and his brothers Stephen and Julian had been in Jamaica barely a week, here to shoot the video for Jamrock.

On a bright Thursday afternoon two weeks ago, the Bob Marley Museum, now branded by its address at 56 Hope Road in Kingston, was a hub of activity. Damian was one of many youths kicking around a football in the front yard, there was reggae music blaring from a speaker nearby and children skipping in and out of the main house.

The activities are the same, but while 56 Hope Road, like all things Marley, has been preserved with Bob's influence, it too now reflects the stamp of the current generation.

The message is the same, but this Marley's message comes cloaked in the dancehall of the 21st century, a music that blends traditional rhythms with hip-hop riffs but still retains the hard-driving roots reggae bass lines, and lyrically reflects the angst of today's youth.

Jamrock, for instance, Jr Gong explains, is a tune about the day-to-day Jamaican reality.

"You saw the movie Life and Debt, right?" he asks, pre-empting his description of the new music video with a description of the 2001 documentary. "Well, the video is kinda like that. You have one vision of Jamaica, which is the vision they sell to the tourists - the beauty of the island, the waterfalls, that kind of thing.

Then you have what the majority of Jamaicans are facing which is Jamrock, which is not such a pretty vision of Jamaica. It's a completely different vision and a completely different life, so that's what Jamrock is, that life, that lifestyle, that part of Jamaica not sold to tourists."

Jamrock will be the first single off Jr Gong's next album, which is currently untitled and without a release date, but which will no doubt be eagerly anticipated, given the success of his last album.

Half-Way-Tree, released in 2000, was Jr Gong's second album and an instant success, earning him a Grammy award in America, but more importantly the respect of the dancehall scene in Jamaica. Although Half-Way-Tree was not his first full-length album, in a way it represented the artiste's coming of age, the real debut of Jr Gong into the world of music.

"The first album, I started when I was in high school when I was very young - like 14. On that album I got a lot of help, lyrically, especially from Steve, but on Half-Way-Tree I did the writing for my parts, well, at least the majority of it."

His first album Me Name Mr Gong sounds nothing like Half-Way-Tree, but Marley admits that the next album will be less of a drastic change, musically and lyrically.

"You're coming from no beard to beard," Jr Gong says of his personal and professional growth, between the first and second releases. "When you compare the last album, you coming from no precepts to precepts, so it's a lot of changes in me as a person that must reflect in the music - my voice get deeper, my mind get more vast, I get more experienced - so all of dem things there reflect in the album."

If he feels under pressure to achieve the same with his upcoming album, he says it's certainly not because the last one sold platinum or won the Grammy, but rather because he knows exactly what sort of record he wants to put out and won't stop till he's done it.

"I didn't really make that album with an intention to win a Grammy, so I didn't take that approach with this album either. For the last year or so I haven't been touring - I've been taking a break to work on the record - although this summer I did do the Roots Rock Reggae tour.

But if you thinking about trying to win awards when you're making music, you're more likely to put a block in your way more than open up your creative self, 'cause you're thinking rather than being creative. So I like to concentrate on why we do music in the first place, which is because we love it."

The vast expectations that come with the Marley name, he says, don't bind him either, but rather, his faith and a sense of responsibility to the music guide his creativity.
"We have our own expectations of ourselves, and we don't want to let we-self down," he says, his constant reference to 'we' hinting at the close personal and working relationships he shares with his brothers.

"The reason our father did the things that he did and is the man that he is, is because he is a Rasta, because of Rastafari. So the morals and the values that he has and that are expressed in his music are because of his faith. And we have the same faith.

So, in a sense it's not really the expectation of 'oh he's Bob Marley's son' but also knowing say you is a Rasta and you have a responsibility to the world."

Although much of the time spent working on the album was spent away from Jamaica ("sometimes it's easier to deal with some business things up there."), Jr Gong is quick to assert that his inspiration comes from a wide and disparate number of sources and experiences.

"Life is just the inspiration. We always give praises to the almighty because he is the one who inspires us, but we use life as the vehicle. So you can be inspired by your friends, your girlfriend, just people you see on the road, what you read in newspapers, what you see on the news."

But while he insists, like all other dancehall artistes do, that his music just reflects reality, one gets the sense that Damian Marley is a little more conscious of the impact his music will have one other young people.

While he glibly dodges making any definitive statement on the current attention the industry is receiving from international gay-rights activists ("Me nuh inna dat argument. Me nah heng no man for what him want to say, cause remember when Rasta just start rise up dem used to get beaten and trim fi say 'hail Jah'."), Marley did add his voice to the growing chorus calling for a united response from the dancehall fraternity.

"All I would like to see right now is better representation for dancehall. In a lot of the cases dem a defile artiste's character, making them out to be what they are not and hurting their careers, and if it was certain foreigners dem would a sue longtime, but there is nobody out there talking for the artistes, or for dancehall."

Still, artistic responsibility is a high-priority matter for Jr Gong, and while he says the next album will have a mix of tunes while he experiments with different musical flavours, he says he'll stick to his topics - reality, Rastafari and social commentary.

"Music influences people. I know that because I know when I was a little youth and I start listen to certain kind of lyrics how my attitude start to change.

I remember when Ninja Man and so start get hot and suddenly every man a bad man. So with that in mind, I know that my music will influence people, so it's really what you want your music to influence people to do or how you want your music to influence others."

"Right now I don't want to talk too much about the album, cause I want the album to speak for itself. I don't like to classify myself and to put myself in a box or try to limit the album. But on this one you have all kind of tracks, you have some spiritual tracks, you have some tracks you probably would call 'rude' or so.

But life's like that. We accept all parts of life - you have some times when you feel spiritual, but is not every time of the day you feel spiritual, sometime you feel 'rude' too and it reflects in the music. Life have everything. Music too."
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/lifes...AN_REALITY.asp

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Thanks, PB! That is a nice update on Damian!
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If you want to stand out, don't be different, be outstanding