The impact of Bob Marley on music across the world is inestimable. From Jamaica Marley’s message of love and equity spread to every corner of the globe and was the first contact many young black creatives got of a musician with substance who didn’t look or sound like the acceptable norms of his time. As […]
The impact of Bob Marley on music across the world is inestimable. From Jamaica Marley’s message of love and equity spread to every corner of the globe and was the first contact many young black creatives got of a musician with substance who didn’t look or sound like the acceptable norms of his time. As such artists who feel a personal connection to his music and legacy often feel moved to record covers of his music as tribute. Lauryn Hill’s cover of “Turn Your Lights Down Low” has become the definitive standard for Marley covers but Dj Yin and BankyOnDBeatz are looking to expand that canon.
After Dj Yin’s debut single “What You Started” critically received across media platforms, there was keen interest to see what next she’d experiment with and if she’d keep her very successful partnership with producer BankyOnDBeatz. Choosing to honor Marley with a tribute is a genius move, a way for her to sate her new fans with music, experiment on her sound without the pressure of a single and basically just explore without any consequences. BankyOnDBeatz does away with most of the instrumentation in the Marley original, only keeping the song’s percussions and distinctive bass guitar riff. Add substituted synths and a chopped and screwed lead guitar melody that plays almost exclusively in the minor range, then you have a barely recognizable but instantly familiar hit. Dj Yin flits in and out of the instrumentals’s silences, blessing us with restrained vocal improvisations and two original verses.
Definitely adding this to our Marley day playlist.
Listen to “I Wanna Love You” here.
