Bob Marley’s ‘Kaya’ Album Goes Platinum In The UK, 47 Years After Its Release
Bob Marley and the Wailers’ 1978 album Kaya has officially been certified Platinum in the United Kingdom. According to the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), the album was awarded the BRIT Certified Platinum status on Friday, August 1, after surpassing 300,000 sales in the UK, as measured by the Official Charts Company.
Released in March 1978, just nine months after the politically charged Exodus, the 10-track Kaya presented a softer, more introspective side of Marley. Recorded during the same London sessions as Exodus, while Marley was in self-imposed exile from Jamaica following an assassination attempt, the album traded militant urgency for meditations on love, longing, and ganja—reinforced by the ganja plant that adorned its back cover.
The album’s title itself is Jamaican slang for marijuana.
The shift in tone sparked backlash from critics and fans who had come to expect fiery protest anthems. As Stephen Davis recounted in his biography Bob Marley, the album ‘provoked surprise and criticism,’ with Kaya accused of being “too mellow” and even a sellout to pop sensibilities.
Speaking with journalist Vivien Goldman in Boston that year, Marley defended the album’s tone: “Me too militant. That’s why me did Kaya, to cool off the pace … I don’t have an army behind me. If I did I wouldn’t care, I’d just get more militant. Because I’d know, well, I have fifty thousand armed youth and when I talk I talk from strength.”
“Maybe if I try to make a heavier tune than Kaya they would have tried to assasinate me because I come too hard. I have to know how to run my life, cos that’s what I have, an’ nobody can tell me to put it on the line, you dig? Because no understand these things. These things are heavier than anyone can understand. People that aren’t involved don’t know it,” Marley continued.
Elsewhere in Davis’ book, Marley reportedly elaborated further: “How long must I protest the same thing? I sing Get Up Stand Up and up till now people don’t get up. So I must still sing Get Up Stand Up? I am not going to sing the same song again. I do not want to be a prisoner.”
“I don’t want to see people suffer and sing as if I’m glad to see people suffer and to make money off of that. I want people to live big and have enough,” he added.
Despite the criticism, Kaya was a commercial success, becoming Marley’s highest-charting non-compilation album in the UK, where it peaked at No. 4. It also reached No. 50 on the US Billboard 200 and is currently certified Gold (500,000 units) in the United States.
The album’s most successful tracks—Is This Love and Satisfy My Soul—were, according to Davis, both “inspired by Bob’s romance with Cindy Breakspeare.” The former peaked at No. 9 on the UK Singles Chart and has amassed 958 million plays on Spotify, while the latter, a “highly-charged song of passion and sex,” remains a fan favorite with 213 million plays on Spotify.
Other standout tracks include Sun Is Shining (No. 3 UK), the title track Kaya, Easy Skanking, Misty Mourning, Running Away, and Crisis, which was heavily sampled by Marley’s grandson YG Marley in his 2024 hit Praise Jah In The Moonlight.
Kaya is now only the second of Marley’s studio albums to earn Platinum status in the UK—alongside Exodus. His 1984 posthumous compilation Legend remains a juggernaut at 15× Platinum.