Saturday, September 29th, 2007  |  NO COMMENTS

Ky-Mani’s ‘Radio’ riddims

Second youngest Marley’s hip-hop-heavy album hits stores.

No one can accuse Ky-Mani Marley of attempting to get by solely on his famous last name. Despite the vocal and physical resemblances to his dad, Kymani is charting a very distinctive professional path. Best known for his starring role as Biggs in the violent, widely bootlegged Jamaican gangster film “Shottas,” Ky-Mani also played the lead character, Kassa, an aspiring reggae singer, in the much tamer romantic tale “One Love.” In February 2008 he begins filming “The Return” which he describes as a “more mature kind of gangster script” and he is also in discussions to star in the long awaited “Shottas” sequel.

With his third album, Radio out today on Vox (the new label’s first album), Ky-Mani returns to his family’s musical roots, though his unique approach and style give the 14-track disc a flavor all his own.

Reggae fans initially took notice in 1997 when Ky-Mani released the single “Dear Dad,” a heartfelt letter to his father, sung over the rhythm to Bob’s “Crazy Baldhead” (from Rastaman Vibration, released in 1976). Ky-Mani has also released two albums: The Journey (V2 Records) and the 2002 Grammy-nominated Many More Roads (Artists Only). Both efforts were dominated by roots reggae sensibilities but also offered ambitious excursions into hip-hop, rock, R&B, even C&W.

Radio, which earned its title because “that is the one place where all genres of music meet; I am a radio, I carry all genres of music inside of me,” features R&B ballads, (including “Tha Conversation” featuring rising Jamaican songstress Tessanne Chynn) and a solemn prayer to the Creator (“I Pray”). The sole reggae track “Hustler” (produced by Larry “Kalid” Chu) is a superbly sung survival story (“I can’t work a 9 to 5, baby I’m a hustler/ Rather risk my freedom than my life/ Got my future in front my eyes”). Judging from the enthusiastic reaction and numerous requests for repeated spins of “Hustler” at the recent Radio listening party in Manhattan, it may be the CDs breakout hit.

Despite its broadcast-friendly title, the explicit language and graphically violent themes contained on several of Radio’s track may ultimately restrict their airplay (Vox has released “clean” versions which delete the expletives but not the brutal imagery). Over sparse, brooding hip hop beats, “One Time” icily warns “know you’re f&*%ing with a city boy/ Dem city boys keep lots of toys/ I got something that will pump through your vest and leave a baseball hole in your chest” and “Ghetto Soldier” (featuring Ky-Mani’s Shottas co-star, Jamaican DJ Louie Rankin) declares “my father was a legend but I was raised up poor/ I told ya when you’re f&*%ng with me, you’re f&*%ng with a ghetto soldier.”

While Ky-Mani’s sometime-thug posturing contrasts his brother Ziggy’s “Love Is My Religion” credo, Stephen’s profound lyrical/vocal introspection on Mind Control, and their father’s signature “One Love” sentiment, he maintains that this album is, to date, the most accurate reflection of his musical personality. His previous efforts, he says, mirrored an identity forced upon him because of who his father is.

“My first album was dictated by management (then Clifton “Specialist” Dillon, renowned for his work with dancehall superstar Shabba Ranks) and the record company,” Kymani revealed during at a recent conversation at the offices of Vox International in mid-town Manhattan. “Everybody assumes that with the Marley last name, you have to be playing reggae, which is ridiculous. They also think that the lyrical content should be that of my father. I say no because he wouldn’t appreciate that. If I were to recreate what my father has already done, people would say he is trying to be like his father and there is more to me than that. No great musician or great anybody got to that level following anybody else; they made it by stepping off the edge of the limb. My father is the greatest thing in the world to me and I make music that I know would be pleasing to him because I am expressing myself and what I have been through.”

The son of Bob Marley and former Jamaican table tennis champion Anita Belnavis has been through some rough times that seem to have shaped the direction of his artistic endeavors. Born on February 26, 1976, in Trelawney, Jamaica, Ky-Mani was just 5 when his father died. At age 9, Ky-Mani and his mother moved to Miami and lived in some of the city’s toughest communities. The blood-splattered shoot-outs between rival drug gangs depicted in “Shottas” as well as the grittiest tunes on Radio parallel his real life experiences.

“‘Ghetto Soldier’ that is me expressing my reality,” Ky-Mani affirms, his accent alternating between a Jamaican inflection and a Yankee drawl. “A lot of people automatically assume everything was wonderful because I am a Marley but I was raised in the inner city where the drugs were outside my doorstep, the crack house was ten steps from my house. I was living in a two bedroom house with nine people, four adults, five children and it was the worst house on the block. It was natural for me to hear gunshots at any time of the day, to see my neighbors fighting and be shooting at each other through my yard. As a kid, someone came in our house and stuck up me and my younger cousin at gunpoint. So I have lived the life, experienced it firsthand and no one can tell me I shouldn’t be singing certain things.”

Ky-Mani has also secured the coveted opening act slot on the much anticipated Van Halen reunion tour which commences on September 27 in Charlotte, North Carolina. “I am overwhelmed by this opportunity to tour with these living legends,” Ky-Mani said, “so in my performance I have to play a tribute to my father’s music because without him, there is no me! But at this point in my career I can go on stage and give you three totally different shows. I can give you four and a half hours of reggae. I can give you Radio. And I can give you world music that is more acoustic. Some people think I sing reggae and that’s what I should stick with; not me, I sing music and wherever the music brings me that is where I’ll go.”

Drawing from his vast influences, Ky-Mani and his seven piece band, Top Shottas, will undoubtedly deliver a set that, in this age of Clear Channel, may be even more diversified than the songs you’ll hear when scanning your radio dial.

Source: BobMarley: News

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