Julian Marley Shares Story Behind His Grammy-Winning ‘Colors Of Royal’ Album
Reggae star Julian Marley and producer Alexx Antaeus recently celebrated their acclaimed Colors Of Royal album with a performance and gathering at the Ribbiz UltraLounge in Kingston, Jamaica.
The event, held last Thursday, marked a homecoming celebration for Marley, who returned to connect with fans on the island and share the music that garnered him his first Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album.
“The whole special thing is that it’s at home and we wanted to keep something at home,” shared Marley, who was born in London to Reggae legend Bob Marley and Barbados-born Lucy Pounder.
“The Grammy’s is a nice thing because it brings a promotion round it. So who really never know about the album then get to know about the album now and even this gathering that gathered up the other day, it introduced them to even more music than just the previous songs that we have been doing.”
Marley’s path to Colors of Royal was anything but conventional.
He told DancehallMag that the album wasn’t initially planned but rather emerged organically during the pandemic. A chance encounter with a hidden studio tucked away in a restaurant led to recording a single, then another, and soon a full-fledged album began to take shape.
“We were talking there for a while and him say you know I have a studio in the back and mi say yeah so we just go check out the studio,” Marley explained.
The studio, owned by producer Antaeus, became a creative haven for Marley, and with limited options due to the pandemic, it provided an outlet for artistic expression. The initial single, a cover of John Holt’s The Tide is High, eventually formed the foundation of Colors of Royal.
“Him [Alexx] say him have a John Holt song called The Tide is high, ‘I hear it in your voice,'” Marley continued. “‘So I said let me hear the rhythm and mi hear the rhythm and it sound different so mi say let me do something because out of nothing is nothing so let’s do something’ and that likkle one song deh became two songs and after that second song we do two more songs and by the time we do two more song we realize we have an album.”
The unplanned nature of the album, according to Marley, is what makes it so special. “It was nothing planned, nothing put together, nothing in the mind, just pure organic natural connection so maybe that’s why this album is a special album because it is out of nothing, no plan, no nothing, just music. We were just playing good music.”
The recording process, which started in 2020, was completed years later as the recording was staggered. “It started as a single then we did two song or three songs and ten there was an ease up and then him send me two more riddim and ask me what mi think bout dem riddim yah and by time we had couple songs, a so it start, that ‘s why I said it didn’t start as an album and by time pass by we realize we had a body of music,” he shared.
According to Marley, two tracks from the album were recorded at Anaetus’ Devon House studio, while the others were recorded at several other locations, including Miami. He said the second track, Robbed, came about after Alexx connected him with producer NotNice.
“NotNice came in to do some engineering for us and he played a song for me and I said mi like tha song deh inno and He said alright mek we just arrange up some time and come back and do something,” he revealed.
“Everything come off good, mi never know Notnice before Alexx nor before this project so as mi say everything was so organic.”
The official music video for Made For Your Love, a Dancehall track from the album, was released on Tuesday.
Marley also told DancehallMag that the title Colors of Royal holds significant meaning.
“It’s very very special,” he said. “First of all, the name Royal is part of my name, Juju Royal is my nickname, so Colors of Royal is different colours of me. This is a different type of sounding album which represents different colours in the spectrum of colours that I love, and I frequently mess around on different tracks and different rhythms and never release dem yet so this is just showing another colour of me which was never shown before.”
The album reflects this diversity, incorporating elements of dancehall, Afrobeat, and even Latin influences. “It’s a different sound, the message is the same but yeah the rhythm is different, it has that dancehall element, the Afrobeat element, it has a little of the Latin elements too which equals to the Africans because all a dem sounds deh come from Africa,” he said.
Marley’s celebration at the Ribbiz wasn’t just about the music.
It was also an opportunity to acknowledge the support he’s received from fellow musicians and artists like NotNice, Jah Vinci, Nordia Mothersille, G Whizz, and others.
“Well as dem say music is unity inno so it’s great when we can support each other especially with the connection music has,” he shared. “Any other genre of music you will see people gather and support one another, that makes music bigger.”
“It’s well appreciated to see musicians and artists turning out to support and as we say music is endless.”
On February 4, Marley and Antaeus’ Colors Of Royal won the 2024 Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album. The album came out ahead of Buju Banton’s Born for Greatness, Beenie Man’s Simma, Collie Buddz’s Cali Roots Riddim 2023, and Burning Spear’s No Destroyer. While celebrating his success, Marley also expressed his reservations about the current Reggae Grammy category, which combines Reggae and Dancehall.
“One of the biggest politics is reggae and dancehall sharing the same category. Tha part deh no mek no sense to me,” he said.
“It’s like we a say classical versus funk, u no see say a two different something. Is like asking if you want Beethoven to win or Tupac to win, which one? That is one of the things weh make some things hidden when it comes to Reggae music, real reggae music.”