The Marley's: The Truth May Hurt But It's Not A Crime
Published Thursday, May 18th, 2007
Courtesy of WWW.Westindiantimes.net - Lady Cham
Review of Stephen Marley's Performance
At 10pm on Thursday, May 17th, 2007 West Indian Times arrived at 'The Norva' in Norfolk, VA to cover the Stephen Marley feat. Damian Marley show. It was a sold out show and filled to capacity with what seemed to be a sea of Caucasian Americans. King Walker of Lionheart Sound along with Killa Khan & Gary Famous of Love People sound were keeping the crowd happy with their early juggling and it felt as though this were going to be a show filled with 'One Love'. At approximately 10.15pm Stephen Marley's band was introduced and two back up singers burst onto the stage with high energy. Stephen came onto the stage and the entire building went wild, he performed tracks from his latest album 'Mind Control' as well as some of his father's tracks such as 'No Woman No Cry', 'Catch A Fire' and 'Buffalo Soldier'. Stephen was awesome and is truly a great performer, unfortunately West Indian Times did not stay past 11pm at the venue so we are unable to bring you any more details relating to the show. However, we did learn first hand what type of people the Marley's are surrounded by.
Media Doing Their Job
Nuff respect goes out to the venue, The Norva, for allowing West Indian Times photo passes and back stage access so that we as media personnel could do our work to share photos and our review with the world. However, we are baffled by the behavior of the Marley's road manager.
Mr. Cham, Natalie and myself (Lady Cham) were back stage, we had taken a few shots from the front of the stage and were backstage taking a few shots of the band from the side of the stage when the road manager named 'Sky High' came up to me and said rudely "you can't take no pictures" and then he abruptly said we could not be backstage. I informed him that we were West Indian Times and we were covering the event. I showed him my photo pass and press pass and he said we could not take any more pictures until the last song, we were allowed to only take photos of the first 3 songs and the last song. This seemed very strange as there were approximately a thousand people in the venue taking photos constantly and some patrons were even video taping the show. I decided to go and take a few shots from the VIP section upstairs and after about 10 minutes I saw the same road manager and a few others in the Marley camp pointing up to me and telling security to come and deal with me. 5 minutes later 2 of The Norva's security came up and asked if I had my photo pass and I showed it to them. They then asked if I had my VIP pass and I showed it to them. They then told me that they did not mind but the Marley's road manager did not want me to take any more photos and if I did he may order them to have me leave the building. I told them that was fine. At this point I had taken enough and did not want to cover the event any further. I went downstairs and as I went backstage there was the road manager again. I am not the type of person to hold my tongue so I asked him why we could not take photos. He informed me that no press is allowed photos of anything other than the first 3 songs and I informed him that we covered the Damian show at The Norva and took photos of the whole show. He looked at me and said "nuttin nuh go so, you hide an do that, yes ah dat you do, you hide an do that.' I told him I was out in the open and the pictures were online and he was still belligerent so I decided to go home and go to my bed. I began to put on my coat to leave when he again approached me and this time he advised me that I could take a photo of Stephen and Damian together when they hit the stage. I could not believe his audacity, did he really believe we needed the bone he was throwing? It was not the fact that they were giving us a hard time because people have their rules and regulations which we can accept, however, manners becomes even a dog. We left.
Are The Marley's Showing Rasta Love?
For years I have heard people talk about the Marley's in a negative fashion, we have all heard people speak and say that the only reason the Marley children get by is because their father was Bob. We hear that they believe they are better than anyone else. We hear that they only cater to White media and White people. Why do we hear these things? And are they true? From our experience with the Marley's (not Stephen or Damian directly) we know that their camp is not filled with the Rasta love that Bob preached about. How can you be singing 'One Love' and have angry people surrounding you? The Marley men must know who they are surrounded by, do they condone this behavior? Is this the reason why Jamaicans do not rate them? You can sing about Jamrock and One Love all day long but I know from being a Jamaican by blood that you can't fool us, not for a second. Sharing the truth may hurt, but it's not a crime.
Words taken from the track 'Small Axe' sung by Bob Marley
Why boasteth thyself oh, evil men
Playing smart and not being clever?
I said, you're working iniquity
To achieve vanity (if a-so a-so)
But the goodness of Jah, Jah
I-dureth for-I-ver
Respect goes out to the Peter Tosh camp and Bunny Wailer who have both always shown West Indian Times Rasta Love and Raspect.
Lady Cham
Editor, West Indian Times News Magazine
Email: info@westindiantimes.net
May 29th, 2007
Big Up lady Cham!!
You know, I don't even bother to show up for any Marley shows (smile). They were performing in Dallas/Ft Worth a week after Morgan Heritage, but, I elected not to cover their concerts because, I don't deal very easily with bad minded people.!!! Give me Peter Tosh or Dennis Brown's offspring's any day!!!!!!!!!!! Rasta Love is apparent.
I have nothing against the Marley's, but, I don't have time for pretendness. I've long heard the Ruff Ruff about them from media friends both White and Black. (smile). Me nuh deal with Jah imitators, no man is an Island, no man stands alone..
Their Manager needs to show respect for sure. In any event. Everyone who knows me will tell you KY-Mani has and will always be my favorite Marley. Ky-Mani has a heart of Pure Gold and show respect for those of his fans and media, of any rainbow coalition. (smile)
I'm sorry to hear about this, but I am also glad to see you were honest to write about it! (smile).
Warm Jamaican Love
Mushi, Texas, USA
Saturday, May 19th, 2007,
Regarding: The Marley's The Truth May Hurt But It's Not A Lie
It's sad the way West Indian Times was treated at the Steven Marley event but you can bet your bottom dollar that if you were a member of the white media, you would not have been treated so shoddily. I remember years ago when Bob Marley was turning out hit records that crossed over from the Kingston ghettos into the mainstream, many people accused Bob Marley of being too commercial. Some even used the word "sellout", a phrase Black folk tend to use whenever one of our artists begins to appeal to a wider commercial audience. However, I think that view of Bob Marley back then was unfair, given how his lyrical accomplishments have stood the test of time. Bob Marley had a true spiritual message. According to a report on National Public Radio last year, even the Buddist monks in Tibet do their soul searching to the lyrical rhythms of Bob Marley.
However, if the new generation of Marleys were to be accused of commercialism, I would unfortunately have to agree. In the Forbes list of artists whose estates still make millions of dollars a year even though they are long dead, Bob Marley made the top ten one year, along with Elvis. The new Marley generation are cashing into this windfall in a mighty way. They have every right to, as heirs to such a magnificent legacy. Unfortunately, rich people don't necessarily attract good quality people. You know how the saying goes about "flies to ointment". This generation of Marley's, with the exception of Ziggy, in my opinion, have not really put out anything that I feel will stand the test of time in the same way as their father Bob. When they play at any venue they are still expected to sing more of their father's songs than their own. I mention Ziggy as an exception because he is a Grammy winner and because anyone with small children will recognize Ziggy's signature tune on the children's PBS TV show "Arthur" which is still playing even after fifteen years.
Coming back to the treatment of West Indian Times by Marley staff, I cannot picture this road manager behaving this way if West Indian Times reporters were white. Some Black folk are still in that stage of social development where they have much to learn about the need to give the same amount of consideration and thoughtfulness and politeness to their own people as they would to anyone else.
Lady Cham, keep up the good work.
Marlene Graham, Miami, Florida
