*The 2025 GRAMMYs, officially known as the 67th GRAMMY Awards, will air live on CBS and Paramount+ on **Sunday, Feb. 2. **Watch highlights from the 2025 GRAMMYs on live.GRAMMY.com.*
The Marley Brothers’ Legacy Tour, which traveled throughout North America in September and October 2024, presented a compelling reminder of the timelessness of Bob Marley’s music while showcasing the diverse talents of five of Marley’s sons and their respective contributions to reggae music’s trajectory. Ziggy, Stephen, Julian, Ky-Mani and Damian Marley performed their father’s roots rock classics, ballads, protest anthems, and Rastafari hymns alongside a few of their original songs. When one brother stepped to center stage and took the lead vocal, the others danced or played instruments.
The Marley sons were supported by a flawless 13-piece band that pumped out sublime, soul stirring reggae rhythms, alongside a female trio reminiscent of Bob Marley’s I-Three. A screen behind the band displayed photos and video of Bob, his album covers, snippets of concert performances, and videos as well as images of Rasta Deity Halie Selassie I. Throughout, spectacular lighting effects bathing the stage in a warm spectrum of colors, and Donovan “Flagman” Judah steadily waved an large Ethiopian red, gold and green flag (Ethiopia is the ancestral home of the Rastafari way of life, which Bob played a significant role in popularizing across the globe), ensuring the concert was as stunning visually as it was sonically.
The five Marley Brothers have intermittently performed together in recent years, including aboard Damian’s annual Welcome to Jamrock Reggae cruise in 2018. However, the Legacy Tour marks their first collective tour in 20 years. Julian — younger brother to Ziggy and Stephen, and older brother to Ky-mani and Damian — says the tour’s timing resulted from a confluence of factors.
“With the (release of the) movie (the Marley biopic, Bob Marley: One Love) you could feel the energy of Bob Marley right around, almost like he is somewhere in the physical. His music now rise up, people are feeling The Gong again, so, it made sense for us to get together, tour and for the music to go out there,” Julian explains.
A week prior to the biopic’s opening at the 2023 GRAMMYs (itself two days before what would have been Bob Marley’s 79th birthday), Julian won his first GRAMMY for Reggae Album Of The Year for Colors of Royal, a collaboration with Antaeus that fuses reggae with electronic dance music. “Everything was happening at the same time,” Julian observes, “that is the mystic of the Rastaman vibration. It’s not something individual, it’s about the Almighty working for whatever reason.”
At the 2025 GRAMMYs, Julian and Antaeus are nominated for Best Remixed Recording in the Pop & Dance/Electronic Field for the amapiano remix of “Jah Sees Them,” (a Colors of Royal track) remixed by Alexx Antaeus, Footsteps and MrMyish.
“It’s a remarkable milestone for a Jamaican reggae artist, riding a South African amapiano groove, released by a small indie label, to secure a GRAMMY nomination in a category traditionally dominated by major labels and artists. We’re deeply grateful to the Recording Academy members who supported our vision,” Julian’s collaborator Alexx Antaeus, who released the remix on his Monom Records, wrote on Instagram.
Julian “Juju Royal” Marley was born in London in 1975 to Barbados-born Lucy Pounder and Bob Marley. He made his first demo tape at a precocious five years old, recording a version of his father’s “Slave Driver” at the Marley family’s Tuff Gong recording studios in Kingston, Jamaica. Primarily a self-taught musician who is proficient on bass, keyboards, drums and guitar, in 1989 Julian released his first single, “Uprising.” He moved to Kingston in 1992, where he joined forces with his brothers Stephen and Damian as the Ghetto Youths crew, and they formed the label Ghetto Youths International.
In 1996, Julian released his first album, Lion in the Morning and Damian released his debut set, Mr. Marley, both produced by Stephen Marley. Like his brothers, Julian has carved out a distinctive career initially characterized by his modern approach to roots reggae and now expanding his sonic palette to incorporate EDM strains as heard on Colors of Royal. Julian’s December 2024 set aboard the Welcome to Jamrock Reggae cruise incorporated the percussive, dancefloor grooves of “Jah Sees Them” alongside his modern roots staples including the herb friendly “Boom Draw,” the anti-Babylon “Systems” and the nautically themed strugglers lament, “Broken Sail,” all enhanced by his expressive vocals and agile, energetic dance moves, reminiscent of his father.
Julian has just one recollection of his dad: it was in 1980 backstage at a concert at London’s Crystal Palace Bowl, part of the final tour of The Gong’s career. Julian recalls going into his father’s dressing room seeing him wearing a jacket with the Rastafari/Ethiopian colors, as he shook hands with fans and well-wishers. “That’s my only memory, but it’s a memory that stays with you for life,” he told Billboard in a 2019 interview.
As the Legacy tour wound its way through the Northeast, Julian Marley spoke to GRAMMY.com about his 2024 GRAMMY win, expanding his musical scope, working with his brothers and his father’s timeless messages.
This conversation has been edited for clarity.
Greetings Julian, how is the Legacy tour going?
It’s going great, man. The people are enjoying the music and the band is exceptional. The spirit is right and like they say, when you unite, everything is right. It’s a lot of traveling and t’ing, but that is part of the mission, you have to get to these corners of life by bus, by foot, by car, by bike, by plane, by whatever means.
The backing band was fantastic, who are they?
They are good brethren. We know each other for years, a combination of musicians from Steve, Ziggy and Damian’s bands. We also have the horn section that is different because we don’t usually use horns [in our bands].
You and your brothers are celebrating your father’s legacy on this tour, so his music dominates the set. How do you decide which of your father’s songs will be included and who will sing lead?
You have to ask Steve, him a the one who choose our father’s songs. He listens to everyone’s set — if he’s not at a concert I’ve been in Europe for the past two months before this tour, he might check on YouTube or Instagram — and say, “Oh, you’re singing that song (by our father) let me put that in the set.” Then he’ll go check Zig and everyone else, come back and say “What do you think about this song?” We’ll say, “Yeah, we can do that one.”
You and your brothers have distinctive musical personalities. How would you describe each of your brothers in musical terms?
Steve is the producer, Damian is the poet, dem say; Ziggy, him is like the high science, the higher heights of the music; Ky-mani is the rebel music. I and I within the priesthood music or the musician’s music, because in my music you can expect to hear strings and all kinds of instruments that you haven’t heard before.
Congratulations on your 2024 Best Reggae Album GRAMMY win. How did you and Alexx Antaeus meet and collaborate on Colors of Royal?
Alexx had a restaurant at Devon House, close to the Bob Marley Museum [in Kingston]. One day I went to Devon House, I met him, and he said, “Next time you’re here, come eat at my restaurant.” A couple days later we went back, had some lunch and Alexx said he had a studio there; he asked me to sing over [the late Jamaican vocalist] John Holt’s “The Tide Is High.” I am a John Holt fan, so I gave it my best shot. We then did two more songs and from that came Colors of Royal.
What was so special about Colors of Royal is that it happened during the pandemic; I was in Jamaica going through the ups and downs, wanting to express myself as a musician but nothing was happening. I went through some terrible things during that time. [Editor’s note: Julian’s 11-year-old daughter, Caveri Samaara Marley, lost her battle with cancer in 2019, a devastating loss which he addressed in a heart-wrenching Instagram live.) I needed to go up on the mountaintop, get away from everything that was happening because it was all too much so whatever music was in my surroundings was getting my attention. So, it was a meditation of that time and going outside of the box, because nothing else was there.
Alexx Antaeus has an extensive background in dance/electronic music. Did you work with him on determining the album’s sonic direction?
Alexx had the idea that I should do something different. He had his body of music; we played some tracks and I said, “I like this one, put it in the bag. I don’t like this one,” and so on. The music is what dictated the songs but if I didn’t love that type of music, I wouldn’t have made that type of music.
Extending the musical branch into a different genre and expressing it came about organically. Once you have a melody, a hook line, you might as well write the song, then it’s a good song, so let’s just record the song.
Are you currently working on a new album?
I have a body of music that is complete, but I have to meditate and give it a title. Basically, the album is ready so at any time we can tell the fans when it’s coming out.
It’s a different type of sound again, working with a bredren from the West Coast, Prince Amir. It’s not as EDM as Colors of Royal, it’s a bit more Afrobeat, dancehall, with a hip-hop vibe. It’s not traditional reggae, it’s expressing another part of me.
Jah say carry the message to the four corners of the earth and in each corner there’s a different type of culture and music; reggae is in one corner, you have people who don’t listen to reggae in another corner, and they need the message, too, so that’s why we branch out.
Since recording your first album Lion in the Morning, has your approach to music making changed?
Nah, it don’t change because what’s inside of you will still come out, making music through different changes in technology. We come from the first time using a tape machine, going through different types of instruments, different types of music, until we reach now. So we still know how to bring what is inside our heart, which has always been there, with this new wave of sounds.
From that era to this era, we have to find a way to bring them together because we still have the roots inside us and the music is evolving in different ways, so we take what we like and leave what we don’t like. Take the goods and throw away the trash. [Laughs.]
Your father passed away on May 11, 1981, yet his music continues to impact new audiences. What do you think it is within his music that people continue to embrace after all these years?
They are embracing what God say when He sent out His messenger to bring out this music. “Redemption Song” says “my hand was made strong by the strength of the Almighty/ we forward in this generation, triumphantly.” If you listen to the music, you hear it in there. He’s gonna be “iron like a lion in Zion.” Another way to answer that is to say that it’s been ordained by the Almighty. Because, yes, the music sounds good, but look how much music sounds good. Look how much things people say that sound positive and good.
So, what is it? God’s mission made it like that. The spirit of our father, being that his powerful music is almost like Psalms, like God’s messages, it’s like the Bible or other holy books that have been around for centuries; the messages in the Gong’s music can’t die.
What are some of the most meaningful lessons you have learned from your father’s music and his accomplishments?
To be true, to walk in pure love. I see my father not as a martyr, but like seeing Christ walk. He went out and he give, and he give, and he give until there is nothing more to give. That type of work is endless; that’s one of the reasons why he’s so powerful because it is a God-given mission. Basically, he gave himself to deliver this message at a time when it was unheard of; people were like, who is this Rasta man coming with this message?
It was very hard; people couldn’t get it and didn’t want it, but they couldn’t stop it. Because as sure as the sun will shine, music is needed.
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