Deejay Buju Banton remarked at his album launch last week that: "You know they say that the greatest musician in Jamaica is Bob Marley. I don't believe that, because we have greater musicians to come. Bob was the most promoted...enough is enough."
Here are some reactions
Don't ask somebody, ask everybody
BY NEWELL MORGAN
That little gem, "Heights of great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight ." is always relevant and instructive. When one seeks to minimise greatness, it gives a false sense that it can be achieved through short cut - promotion in this case.
Bob Marley had - and still has - the ability reach the masses worldwide through his songs. As Bogle would say, "Don't ask somebody ask everybody."
Bob did not have the luxury of mp3s, Facebook, myspace, hi5 and all these new tools that give artistes instant world access. Peter Tosh said if he had a proper guitar in his early years he would have made the music that makes the angels sing. If you are great you will be seen and heard.
I strongly believe that artistes who have the same amount of drive, vision, respect, dedication and fortitude to music and cause will achieve greatness, as Bob did. (Sorry, my two cents is to address greatness, not okay or good music, so forgive me if I totally missed the mark.)
When we hear the first note on a great song we burst in excitement. Bob has a number of those. Take for example Redemption Song. Junior Kelly used the beat from that song for Love So Nice and it propelled him to the forefront .
Jamaica produces lots of good runners, however Mr Bolt is the greatest. And rightfully so, because he - not Bailey, not Johnson, not Lewis, not Green - ran the fastest times in the world. It's not about promotions, rather it's about deeds!
Bob Marley sells 10 times platinum for starters and he therefore is the benchmark for sales in reggae music. Buju is fooling himself if he thinks that the music industry is jampacked with icons waiting to be discovered and promoted. No matter how much money is spent on most talents they will not sell records. It's not easy to move the mass or pull a profitable crowd.
Great is when three generations have your music in their collection - the purchased, store bought version. Bob Marley's music hit the world like that and it felt no pain.
In closing, Bob made a huge impact with War, the Emperor's speech and another artiste (a deejay whose name we will not call, but who surely knows himself) did Marcus Garvey's speech to a luke warm reception. That, I think, goes to show the measure of the man.
Greatness is within us, get used to it
By Dennis Howard
I really need to get some clarification as to what Buju Banton was saying when made the statement at his album launch last week. He was also reported in this paper as saying, "I want Jamaica music to be seen not through the pretext of some man that died 20 years ago but as a pretext of a living being, working earnestly." This seems to my mind inconsistent with someone who during his early Rastafarian manifestations was known in the music fraternity as Buju "Marley" for his obvious respect and adulation for Bob Marley. It is worthy to note that Banton is the only contemporary deejay to cover a Wailers song Destiny on which Marley was the lead singer. On his landmark album Til Shiloh it is clear that Banton was attempting to create his own version of the Marley classic Redemption Song with the penning of Untold Stories.
So it was very surprising to hear that one artiste would make such a scathing critique about one of our legends at his album launch where the focus should be one his own work.
I find the comments puzzling and counter-productive if he was quoted correctly; it seems to me that in Jamaica and the Caribbean, we are uncomfortable with valorisation and affixing adjectives such as great, legend, saint, messiah to our leader artistes and intellegensia. If Bob or any other of our great and brilliant artistes cannot be called the greatest at any point in time, when will we discover the greatest? If we are to believe Banton that this person is yet to come.
However, it is clear in my opinion that as a complete artiste in terms of song-writing, production, recording, ambition, mystique, aura, discipline, star qualities and global appeal, Bob Marley is indeed the greatest musician, artiste and Jamaican globally. Banton did not offer a candidate for "the greatest" from our past and present stock of artistes, but assumes the greatest is yet to come. Banton, more than most of his contemporaries, has lionised the Marley legacy hence, I believe he wanted to make another point but did not articulate it correctly. I am hoping he will reconsider his opinion and rearticulate a more cogent argument, but as history suggests, Banton is not one to easily retract his utterances.
While a critique of Marley's worthiness to be called the greatest is always on the table, and should be debated constantly, it is quite another matter to emphatically state that he is not, and offer the promise that "the greatest" is yet to come.
So what are we to aspire to the in interim? When will we decide that there is someone who can be called "the greatest musician in Jamaica"?.
William Shakespeare is still the greatest English writer of all times and I hear no one disputing this general consensus no matter how subjective this seems. Michael Jordan and Babe Ruth are still considered the greatest in their respective sport. It is universally held that the Beatles are the greatest rock band of all times and still outsell the biggest pop star of the modern era. Are you telling me I can't refer to Usain Bolt as the greatest sprinter of all times based on his Beijing exploit, or am I to wait until some other sprinter comes along?
Why can't Marley, Tosh or Toots be called the greatest?
The global consensus is that Marley is among the top pop artiste of all times in any genre. Reggae is from a place where that are no more than five million of us, for Bob Marley to be placed on this musical Mount Rushmore is extraordinary and astonishing. If that is not greatness, please let me know what is.
Bob is the greatest
Buju, you are wrong, Bob Marley is the greatest musician to hail from Jamaica, I will go further, Bob is international. Bob may not be the greatest vocalist, but he was rounded, he was able to adapt and he brought reggae to the world. Bob can be compared to Muhammad Ali, not necessarily the best pound-for-pound boxer, but Ali was all that boxing had never seen before and after. Ali influenced thousands of persons to enter boxing and other sports; he made it possible for sports persons to earn big bucks. Ali put nations on the world map. Bob created an international interest in Jamaica. I assume that Buju was implying that musicians should not be fearful that they could not be better that Bob - I would agree, and I am sure Bob, if he were here, would agree. Bob was well promoted - and? Motown artistes were well promoted and groomed, the result: The Temptations, The Supremes, David Ruffin, Gladys Knight, Marvin Gaye, The Four Tops, Smokey Robinson, The Jackson 5, and more. Reggae artistes have covered many of the above songs. Bob was a Leader amongst men, the only other Jamaican that presently share this platform is, Marcus Garvey. The late great James Brown, Godfather of Soul, acknowledged Bob in his song. And the legend, Stevie Wonder honoured Bob, constructed a song in his honour - an accolade indeed. The guests who applauded Buju's comment on Bob demise, are 'Miseducated'
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