Blvk H3ro didn’t just pick a Bunny Wailer song to cover. He picked one from a man he toured with and watched up close before his passing, and he recorded it in Trench Town, the Kingston community where The Wailers’ story began.
The Jamaican singer announced on Instagram that his version of “Fig Tree” drops this Friday through VP Records. He called it “a full-circle moment,” writing that he “got to tour and be around Sir Bunny before he transitioned.”
“I learned so much just by watching him, so it’s an honor to stand on the foundations of such a legend,” he wrote. That line frames the release less as a tribute from a distance and more as a student returning to the source.
Bunny Wailer was one of the three original Wailers alongside Bob Marley and Peter Tosh. He was the last of that trio still living when he died in 2021, which gives any reworking of his catalogue a certain weight in reggae circles.
The personnel on this record pushes it beyond a typical cover. Blvk H3ro tagged @cannonfraser, @daveprimetimegreen and @megahbass as players on the track, and he also named Chinna Smith.
Earl “Chinna” Smith’s guitar runs through decades of roots reggae, so his presence ties the new recording directly to the era it’s drawing from.
The other angle is the estate side of the story. Blvk H3ro gave a “big up to Maxine for carrying on the legacy/works fawud thru the @thewailerstrio,” and he tagged the @bunnywailerarchives account on the announcement.
That suggests the project has the blessing of the people stewarding Bunny’s work rather than being a solo artist’s one-off homage.
That matters because covers of foundational reggae can split listeners. Some hear a younger voice carrying the music to a new audience, while others are protective of recordings they consider untouchable.
Having Bunny’s archive and The Wailers Trio connected to the release, plus veteran players in the room, looks like a deliberate answer to the purist side of that conversation.
VP Records handling distribution puts “Fig Tree” in the hands of one of reggae’s most established labels. It’s a natural home for a release that is trying to bridge the old guard and the current generation.
Blvk H3ro hasn’t shared more details about the release beyond Friday’s date, the musicians and the Trench Town origin. How listeners react to a new voice on Bunny’s material is the part still to come.
