Stephen Marley: Mind Control

For me, and many in the cannabis culture, there is no musical artist in history more highly regarded than Robert (Bob) Nesta Marley. Our culture will be forever indebted to him for his sensuous and revolutionary message of peace, unity, and hope for all oppressed peoples, certainly including victims of the drug war. Bob Marley is universally recognized in a way unlike any other human being on earth. People of all ages and races know his image immediately. He was a man of infectious spirit-elevating music with a powerful political message of peaceful liberation.

Bob Marley’s power lives on through his thirteen children. His third child with wife Rita, Stephen Robert Nesta Marley, was born serendipitously on April 20, 1972 – now a date for worldwide celebration among the cannabis culture as “4/20.” In Stephen’s very early years he was part of his older brother’s band Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers. Later he produced music for his sib-
lings, including hits by brother Damien. Now at 35 years of age, and with ten children, Stephen has hit the road to promote his own record.

The release of Stephen Marley’s album Mind Control in March of 2007 was billed in the press release as his first CD of solo music. “How could that be?” I wondered; Cannabis Culture’s entertainment writer Jeniffer Zimmerman had reviewed Stephen Marley’s first CD Got Music back in CC#57, 2005! She still has the disc, and you can read the article in CC#57 or online with photographs at www.cannabisculture.com/article/4532.html.

I met up with Stephen and Damian Marley on April 14, 2007 when the Mind Control Tour brought them to Vancouver’s Commodore Ballroom. It’s stunning how much this scion evokes his father in appearance, voice, demeanor, and performance. I was able to pay my respects with a gift from Cannabis Culture Magazine: 15 grams of dank indica bud, 5 grams of extremely fine sativa buds, a bit of outstanding fresh hash, and a hand-blown glass pipe with a Vancouver Canucks hockey team logo to give them a British Columbia vibe
wherever they go.

I showed Stephen the interview in CC#57 and he was pretty surprised. Got Music was ultimately never released, a decision made after early promotion and the Cannabis Culture article. Instead, Stephen has spent the last two years tweaking Got Music to officially release it as Mind Control. Mystery solved – and now Cannabis Culture can definitely say we reviewed the CD Mind Control first… 20 months ago! Indeed, five songs had name changes, and sometimes were redone, but it is essentially Got Music with an extra two years of loving work, and the result is a 5-star classic album.

Cannabis and persecution make up the theme for a trilogy of three stylistically different songs drawn from Stephen’s arrest and jailing – less than a day – in Tallahassee, Florida for marijuana possession. Iron Bars is rich with sentiment that anyone arrested for weed can find immediate affinity with.

What am I doing behind these iron bars
Never robbed nor killed, never done no one harm
You put me in shackles, you place I in chains
Said I’ll never see the outside again…
I’m a prisoner locked up for what?
Freedom of Speech, ain’t that all we’ve got?
Wounded pride my head held up high
Rebels for life, we rebel for the right
Let me out, let me out
I’m an angry lion…
Wanna take away my freedom wanna take away my life
Lock me up, for what? A little sensimilla and a knife
So who a going to feed my youth, who a going to
care for my wife…
And lock we up in a your prison for we work out of here
We a go break down this prison wall and get the fuck
out of here…
Blaze it!

The jail experience is central to Traffic Jam, a song in a different style with lyrics in the Jamaican patois:

This is ragamuffin* from the ghetto youths camp
(*Stephen Marley)
Anywhere mi go mi say mi must have mi stamp
Marijuana we and mi smoke, dem seh too ignorant
Just the other day some po-po* hold mi fi one ( *police)
Me and me brother Juju and mi idren name Don
Bounce and listen to Gong* mi mashing up the traffic jam (*Damien’s music)
Police pull mi ova talkin’ bout him smell chron* (*the chronic)
From mi look in a him face I know this boy had a plan
Juju touch mi upon mi shoulder said the boy a demon
First thing him want to know is where that smell comin’ from?
Are you smokin’ marijuana? and I said yes I am
True him see say man trans gooda* cost a couple grand (*interstate transportation)
Him say make mi see the license and the registration
And where are you headed? what’s your occupation?
Done know say ragamuffin not going to answer no question
As it says on the paper read the information
From mi not go take no streetside interrogation
So book me if you book me carry down a station
Make me show dem how we did it in a style and pattern

In the fourth set of verses in Traffic Jam, Stephen Marley is brought before the judge in Florida.

How do you plea? Not Guilty!
Your honor! I think you and your entire organization
is corrupt and filthy
Herb must be burn!
Them say you an herbsman, and mi the farmer
And anywhere mi go marijuana
is on any corner
Jah know, I see the good sensimilla
Then Rastaman you must glow…
Yo it’s a spiritual lift and we not think
about (the) traffic (jam)
The scent a mi herbs, Babylon takes it
To kill every herb seed that is their wish
Make a violation all because a one spliff...

After a discussion with Stephen about the lyrics in Mind Control, I told him and Damien I have a dream: to see a Marley musician play for the Havasupai native tribe that lives at the base of the Grand Canyon, a place and people beloved by CC contributor, Weeds TV actor and religious-use cannabis activist Craig X Rubin. The Havasupai and Hopi people are not only the oldest of all Native American tribes – dating back at least 900 years – but are both known for their peaceful natures; they never went to war, and used physical force only to defend themselves. Many Havasupai people revere Bob Marley and reggae music as a harbinger of liberation and unity. They, like many aboriginal peoples around the world, respond to this message of “One Love” and enduring hope.

Bob Marley had wanted to perform at the Havasupai reservation but died in 1981 before making the journey. In 1982, Bob Marley’s mother Mama Booker honored his wish and went to the reservation; they brought in a grand piano by helicopter – the only possible means of doing so – and set it in front of the sacred 150-foot high turquoise waterfall. With two thousand tribal members lining the canyon and beach, Mama B played Bob Marley’s songs late into the night.

I told Stephen and Damian that Cannabis Culture would put up $5,000 to have the Marley’s perform this August or September at the spectacularly beautiful reservation, a fitting commemoration 25 years after Mama B first brought the Marley music to the tribes of the desert. “If the tribe invites us, we would love to perform,” said Stephen, to which I asked, “Have I got your word on that?” “Absolutely,” he said. I promised to begin working on arrangements and then said my goodbyes as they prepared to perform. There was no mistaking the sweet skunky smell wafting in the air when I left as hundreds of fans, packed tightly into the Commodore Ballroom, awaited the start of the show.

Stephen Marley has produced a fabulous collection of his own work and I highly endorse you pick up Mind Control. It’s not yet available to buy online, but I got the CD for USD$11.00 at my local music store. Stay tuned for a more about a magical Marley performance in the Grand Canyon later this year! I’ll be working on it.