Stephen Marley Celebrates 50th Earthstrong With 4/20 Live Stream
Stephen Marley celebrates his 50th birthday (Golden Jubilee) on 4/20, a day universally dedicated to “the glowing green”, marijuana. It’s only appropriate that one of Bob Marley’s gifted children (his second, actually) would be born on this day, but surname aside, it seems that no better advocate exists for the much-maligned and misunderstood plant than Stephen ‘Ragga’ Marley.
Festivities for the singer, musician, and producer’s Earthstrong included a cozy acoustic performance of his ‘herb hits’ and others via CEEK, a world-class platform renowned for its premium online hosting. In the years prior to the pandemic however, Marley was out and about championing the cannabis cause, most famously through his Miami-based venture, Kaya Fest.
At 12 EST sharp today, CEEK delivered a lit and immersive experience complete with a background montage of the Gong’s best stills. The band kicked things off with Mind Control before rolling into Hey Baby, Chase Dem and One Good Spliff, the tribute to herb originally sung by his family tree, the Melody Makers.
He closed out the 25-minute set with rich string renditions of The Traffic Jam and Revelation Party. An eight-time Grammy winner, Marley’s catalogue is brimming with material on just about every topic, and peppered with beloved live versions, remixes, and features.
Journalist Jon Pareless noted in The New York Times in 2016 that “Mr. Marley’s aching voice suits love songs just as well as protests…and more often than not, Mr. Marley lives up to the ambition that his last name demands of him.” Part of owning this incredible legacy has been his tireless work via various avenues to elevate the status of weed.
In 2017, Stephen established the annual Kaya Fest, a rocking celebration/ educational venture that highlights the benefits and opportunities around ganja. Combining two of his great loves — music, the timeless catalyst and the versatile natural mystic that is cannabis — Marley curated a historic gathering of musical greats for an expression of unity and artistic excellence.
“Kaya Fest is a music and awareness festival. The awareness is about cannabis and educating one about the many benefits of cannabis,” the Tight Ship singer said in a 2019 release. “My father has always been an advocate, my grandparents, that was our culture … being educated in the many different benefits of the plant. More than just as a sacrament, the industrial use, all those things.”
For 4/20 last year, Stephen shared a heart-rending IG video in support of the Last Prisoner Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to cannabis criminal justice reform. Overcrowded prisons and cramped conditions have amplified the group’s fight during the pandemic, yet they remain steadfast, lobbying for the release of incarcerated cannabis prisoners as well as the expunging of their records.
“40,000 people are incarcerated for cannabis in America,” the Rockstone crooner wrote in his caption. “#Coronavirus is spreading like wildfire in our prisons. This is a humanitarian crisis. These people desperately need our help. #LetThemOut.”
He also participated in Weedmaps’ live session Higher Together, the world’s biggest virtual 4/20 celebration, which included Wiz Khalifa, Dave East and others, and also hosted a donation drive for the Last Prisoner Project,
Speaking with the Sun Sentinel at 2019’s Kaya Fest, Marley said that most laws that continue to demonize marijuana are written by people who are willfully ignorant, dishonest and reluctant to be part of the inevitable change.
“It is good to see progress. We definitely see some progress, Marley began. But then, you know, it’s frustrating. You know that truth, and you still don’t want to accept the truth about the benefit of the plant,” he says.
He added that such backward attitudes had always been at the root of the problem. “So that is the part that really upsets us the most, as far as the system, as far as the government. They know the truth, but them, for their reasons, them deny the truth. For a very long time.”
The Gong himself said as much in a famed Auckland New Zealand interview in 1979. “Herb..is a plant. Ah mean, herb so good fi everyting..Why these people who want to do so much good fi everyone who call demself governments and dis and dat, why dem seh yuh must not use di herb? We check dat and we cyaan find, we jus see dem jus seh ‘no you musnt use it cause it mek yuh rebel’. Against what?”
The No Cigarette Smoking singer has seen the fruit of his efforts however, despite the slow pace of decriminalization in his Florida home state for non-medicinal purposes. The music and awareness festival was named one of the Top 10 Music Moments of 2017 by Miami New Times. A representative on behalf of the Mayor of Miami also presented Skip Marley with a certificate proclaiming 4/20 as Marley Family Heritage Day.
In the Q&A that followed his CEEK live session, the ‘birthday boy’ spoke on what he hoped his impact in music had been. “My legacy ah hope is one that people look at and feel inspired to be better”, he began. “To see each other in the aspect of love and human family, you know? That is what I hope, [that] my music brings people together in unity and harmony.”
It’s a feat he can already claim, as ContactMusic.com noted in their write-up on his 2005 masterpiece suite, Mind Control. The outlet observed that for Stephen, “the last name “Marley” has nothing to do with being the son of a musical icon or an heir to a throne, [and] everything to do with being an individual with a purpose.”
Add to that his track record of excellence; all Marley’s albums reached the number 1 position on the Billboard reggae charts. With his wise vocals, work ethic and genre averse influence, the Marley legacy and ganja advocacy are in humble, capable hands. As he told ContactMusic.com, “It’s a blessing to not have to stagger through life. I was born firm and conscious.”
Blessed Earthstrong Ragga Marley.