The king of reggae’s majestic music has long battled the ‘bong beats’ tag but now he will be best known as a standard-bearer for dopeheads worldwide

Bob Marley has only got himself to blame. The reggae king’s legacy will be etched on a range of cannabis products and he’ll be for ever remembered/forgotten as a brand of spliff rather than the musical genius behind some of the most enduring popular music ever created. Like I say, he’s only got himself to blame.

When Marley died intestate in May 1981, anyone who knew anything about his lifestyle and domestic and marital affairs knew that the doo-doo would hit the fan.

At the time he was worth about £28m, but somehow £22m of that was spirited away before litigant after litigant claimed their stake in the “Marley millions”. Some of these claims were legit. Marley had 11 children (nine of whom he fathered, two were adopted) by seven different women. In the scramble for his wealth, however, scores of others claimed to be his issue, one or two of whom were nearly as old as the singer himself.

Marley, being Marley (and a rastaman), didn’t believe in the “babylon” system of legal formalities. He didn’t leave a will. He left the contracts to his manager, the late Don Taylor, who was fond of recounting that Marley had declared to him that “Rita can write my signature better than me”.

The Rita in question was Marley’s long-suffering wife, who it transpired was the only one with a documented legal claim to his millions – a marriage licence. Rita soon emerged from the legal mess following Marley’s death as the most powerful broker of his assets.

Everything that has happened in the name of Bob Marley over the past 33 years has happened with her blessing. The reissues, the re-releases, the proposed film about Marley, and even who earns from it, as Aston “Family Man” Barratt, Marley’s revered bass player, found to his cost when he made a legal bid for a multimillion-pound slice of the Marley musical empire. He is now bankrupt.

Bob Marley performs on stage with The Wailers in May 1977 in The Hauge, Netherlands
‘Which parent is going to want to have their children singing ‘One love, one heart, let’s get together …’ when the man who sings it is encouraging them to get wasted?’. Photograph: Gijsbert Hanekroot/Redferns
There is barely a professionally taken photograph of Marley that is not now owned by “the Marley Family” and their emissaries, because Rita has spent the past few years buying rolls of film off every photographer who ever snapped her husband, to prevent anybody else exploiting his image apart from those they have licensed it to.

And that is some of the best business she has done since Marley died. In fact, so lucrative are his image rights that she sold them lock, stock and two spliff-smoking barrels to an American company.

So it is to Rita, the guardian of Marley’s legacy, that the finger has to be pointed for this latest transgression of whatever good name and credibility Marley has left. It is the worst possible use of his name and image. Marley will not be taken seriously, but regarded as a spliffhead. His music, which has battled against the tag of “bong beats” for years, will now succumb to the inevitable as teenagers the world over tune in, get stoned and cop out. Which parent is going to want to have their children singing “One love, one heart, let’s get together …” when the man who sings it is encouraging them to get wasted?

Rita might say that Marley loved to smoke a spliff, and who can argue with that? In fact, it was she who slipped a stalk of sinsemilla (at the time the most common form of marijuana in Jamaica) into his coffin before the lid was shut on his remains for the last time. But there are millions of other people around the world who have enjoyed a good puff who do not suffer the ignominy of having their name and achievements reduced to standard-bearer for dopeheads worldwide – Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger to name but two.

There is, of course, a more sinister consequence of Marley’s name and image being associated with a brand of cannabis. It’s bad enough being black when going through customs, let alone being a dread travelling across national borders. But now, what will the police and everybody else think when they see Marley’s face on legal spliff? How much more difficult is it going to be for my children to avoid the stereotype?

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/nov/20/bob-marley-legacy-cannabis-smoke-reggae-dopeheads

SirShymex:
Interesting piece by Dotun Adebayo, and a rejoinder to this article: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/nov/18/bob-marley-marijuana-herb

Despite the greatness of Bob Marley, it's just a pity that opportunists will always try to make cheap gains, by using his name and face to sell a lifestyle. And not his message. They did the same to Tupac, and I think Fela Kuti also gets a lot of bad rap from Nigerians.

When are black folks going to respecting their true legends and stop being shallow-minded? We're the most fvcked up people on this planet.

Anyway, let me celebrate the great one with this great tune.