Dispatch from Kingston, Jamaica

Jamaica is proud of its musical heritage. Everywhere you turn, someone somewhere is blasting reggae or dancehall. Visiting during Reggae Month, over what would have been Marley’s 80th birthday, there are murals across Trench Town and New Kingston celebrating legends such as Desmond Dekker, Millie Small and Toots & The Maytals. It seems like a good moment to assess the current role of reggae. Although the style initially preached messages of unity, spirituality and strength, does that still hold weight today among Gen Z audiences and the social media generation, or has that changed since Marley’s passing 45 years ago?

The legendary Rockers International Records owner, Ainsworth ‘Mitchie’ Williams, has seen artists come and go. Opened in 1976, his remains the last record store on the infamous ‘Beat Street’ in the heart of Kingston’s music scene. Mitchie believes that reggae has the same powerful message after all these years. “It still translates even now, as does Bob Marley’s message of ‘One Love’, which is why it plays such an important role. Once that song plays, you see unity anywhere you are. Everybody’s going to sing it. And that just speaks to the power of that music.”

Attending the Island Music Conference, run by the globally recognised Shaggy, I spoke to grassroots reggae artists Matthew Malcolm and Zac Jone$, both in their early 20s, about whether reggae has changed over the years. Zac says: “Reggae is a very important genre, not just in Jamaica, but in the world. You know, it speaks. And not just [about] income equality, like I said, in Jamaica, but we speak about equality, overall.”

“Reggae has a very important place in society because it is the music of not only revolution, but the music of freedom, the music of positivity and good energy, and it needs to continue to proliferate. So as a young reggae artist in Jamaica and bringing that to the world, it’s essential to the global population, not just Jamaicans and people who like reggae, we’re spreading positive messages there.”

Malcolm thinks the delivery of reggae’s message has changed thanks to “everything being more digitised.” He explains: “I think the challenge is not understanding how to properly put a digital product on the market, on the shelf for people to buy. And especially knowing reggae music where you don’t have a lot of investment anymore, like Bob Marley in those days, where you had Chris Blackwell of Island Records and many other investors.”

As for Shaggy, does he believe that reggae engages with contemporary issues such as income inequality, political activism and even the globalisation of Jamaican culture? “It still does. A lot of these young kids are about conscious music. There’s a powerful conscious movement here in Jamaica. Many of these little rasta kids are coming with this love music, unity music, conscious music and protest music. So, yeah, it’s a strong part of it.” 

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