Happy Birthday Bob!

The Honorable Robert Nesta Marley was born on this day, February 6, 1945, and I wanted to share a few words on my discovery of the man and his music..

My first real Bob Marley experience was in high school around 10th grade. I bought the Rastaman Vibration cassette on a whim, during a time when my life (and money) was almost completely consumed by hip hop -lol-. Bob's music spoke to me in a different, yet familiar language in a sense. To my untrained and non fluent ear, understanding/overstanding the Rasta terminology was like cracking a secret code of words and phrases that revealed their meanings inside of themselves.

From this cassette, I can clearly remember being drawn to the songs Rat Race, Crazy Baldheads, and Who The Cap Fits, initially from the titles of the tracks alone, but the chanting of the hooks/choruses, powerful verses, and rhythms of that tape opened my eyes to a whole new world of music that I'm still discovering to this day.

Along with the likes of Public Enemy, Big Daddy Kane, and every other hip hop group out at the time of my discovery, Bob Marley entered my playlist and has remained every since...

Reggae mix soon come,
Junior Star

Feel free to comment and post your first Bob Marley experience...