Skip Marley (2021)

 One Liner: Grandson of Bob Marley, doing a pretty solid job of holding up the mantle

Wikipedia Genre: Reggae
Home: Kingston, Jamaica

Poster Position: Late Addition
Friday at 3:15 on the Miller Lite Stage.

Both Weekends.

Thoughts:  I know about some of the Marley progeny, like Ziggy and Damian, but I hadn't heard anything about Skip until the Grammy's back in 2017 when Katy Perry's (freaking terrible) "Chained by the Rhythm" performance involved someone firing off a few reggae bars as she danced around a little white house.  Well, that guy was Skip.  

He was last here in 2017 to play ACL.  I didn't wander over to see the set, but I generally liked the idea of it.  Since that appearance, he has released a single album - 2020's Higher Place.  His songs are still generally reggae, but some of them veer into rap/hip/hop sounds as well.  Even the reggae songs sometimes show an interesting shift from the traditionalist reggae.  And because I have listened to some Bob Marley and Toots & the Maytals, I am a preeminent scholar on traditional reggae.

He full on dives into rap with a track on the album that features Rick Ross.  Could totally be a regular rap song - no real traces of reggae on there.  But other parts of the album go back to the more traditional sound with the up skank rhythm and everything.  But even with that rhythm, this still sounds more like rap than grandpa Bob did.  "My World" could just be a rap song with Skip mainly singing the R&B hook part.  "That's Not True," with his uncle Damian, is a pretty legit reggae track.  I like the horns.  The top track, by a bunch, is "Slow Down," with 35.4 million streams.

The track features H.E.R., so that could be the reason it has so many streams.  I think she's much more popular than old Skipper.  But, his voice sounds super like Bob's in that intro singing.  I like it.

Skip is the son of Cedella Marley, who is listed on Wikipedia as a serious slash - Jamaican singer, dancer, fashion designer, actress, author, and entrepreneur.  Just about everything in there.  He was born in Kingston, but actually raised in Miami.  Skip has received two Grammy nominations, one for that song up above, which was nominated for Best R&B song.  See, I told you this wasn't straight reggae anymore!

I like his version of "Johnny Was."  Legit.  His second biggest streamer is "Cruel World," with 21.6 million streams.  This one is a 2017 single, and doesn't make the album.

Also, that sounds more like EDM than reggae.  This guy is all over the map.  It's like an EDM guy wanted to make an island track to tuck in the midst of his other sick drops.  Not bad, not great either.  I prefer the more legit reggae stuff.  There is a whole group of remixes by Major Lazer, and those straight up made me say cuss words, look up from my work, and figure out how to stop listening to that portion of his catalog.  Yuck.  Going even older, this one is his old hit, and it also kind of sounds like it was made by a techno guy. "Lions," with 15 million streams.  A 2017 single.

I wonder if he brings a real band on stage, or if he can recreate all of this with a laptop. I suppose that it could be recreated live, with a real drummer trying to replicate the machines.  But I guess he can be just like other ACL "bands" who just break out their Macbook and let it rip while they sing along.  I guess we'll see.  I'd be kind of interesting in seeing him, but it would only be if nothing else interesting was going on.