''Fly Rasta'' is the fifth solo studio album by Jamaican reggae artist

Ziggy Marley David Nesta "Ziggy" Marley (born 17 October 1968) is a Jamaican reggae musician. He is the son of Bob Marley and Rita Marley. He led the family band Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers until 2002, with whom he released eight studio albums. After ...

. It was released on 15 April 2014, via Tuff Gong Worldwide. Produced by Ziggy Marley himself with Dave Cooley's additional production, it features

guest appearance The term guest appearance generally denotes the appearance of a guest in an artistic or pop-culture setting. The guests themselves (referred to as guest artists, featured artists, guest stars, or guest fighters, depending on context), are disting ...

s from

Cedella Marley Cedella Marley Minto (born 23 August 1967) is a Jamaican singer. She is the daughter of reggae singers Bob Marley and Rita Marley and the mother of Skip Marley. She was in the group Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers along with her siblings. W ...

, Ian "Beezy" Coleman and

U-Roy Ewart Beckford OD (21 September 1942 – 17 February 2021), known by the stage name U-Roy, was a Jamaican vocalist and pioneer of toasting.Jo-Ann GreeneU-Roy Biography, AllMusic. Retrieved 11 April 2013. U-Roy was known for a melodic style ...

. The album debuted at number 129 on the ''Billboard'' 200, number 22 on the

Independent Albums The Independent Albums chart (previously titled Top Independent Albums) ranks the highest-selling independent music albums and extended plays (EPs) in the United States, as compiled by Nielsen SoundScan and published weekly by '' Billboard'' mag ...

and atop the

Reggae Albums The ''Billboard'' charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs and albums in the United States and elsewhere. The results are published in ''Billboard'' magazine. ''Billboard'' biz, the online extension of the ''Billboard'' charts, p ...

charts in the United States. It won a

Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album The Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album is an award presented at the Grammy Awards for quality works in the reggae genre. Originally called the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Recording, the honor was presented to artists for eligible songs or albums. ...

at the

57th Annual Grammy Awards The 57th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 8, 2015, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. The show was broadcast live by CBS at 5:00 p.m. PST ( UTC−8). Rapper LL Cool J hosted the show for the fourth consecutive ti ...

held on February 8, 2015. It was supported with singles "Fly Rasta" and "Lighthouse".

AOL AOL (formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City, and a brand marketed by Yahoo! Inc. The service traces its history to an online ...

released a music video for "I Don't Wanna Live on Mars" exclusively on their web-page. The video features his real-life wife and kids in a dream sequence where their family traverses an unhealthy planet

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

. The song and video's imagery convey a unified message from Marley that we should treat the earth well so we do not all have to leave to live on

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

Critical reception

''Fly Rasta'' was met with generally favourable reviews from

music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on ...

. At

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

score of 63 based on six reviews.

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

's David Jeffries praised the album, stating: "right-sized, organized in a sensible manner, and an alluring balance of cool and calm, ''Fly Rasta'' lives up to its title as it sits on Ziggy's top shelf". Erin MacLeod of ''

Exclaim! ''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly ''Exclaim!'' print magazine publishes seven ...

'' found "throughout the record, Marley demonstrates that reggae can grow and adapt without losing sight of its roots". In his negative review for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', Jon Dennis wrote: "the only risk Marley takes is on "You're My Yoko", where he attempts to woo a lucky lady by likening her to the avant-garde artist, while casting himself as

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer-songwriter, musician and activist. He gained global fame as the founder, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the Beatles. Lennon's ...

Julian Lennon Julian Charles John Lennon (born John Charles Julian Lennon; 8 April 1963) is an English musician, photographer, author, and philanthropist. He is the son of Beatles member John Lennon and his first wife Cynthia; Julian is named after his pate ...

would have been nearer the mark".

Track listing

Personnel

*David " Ziggy" Marley – lead vocals, guitar, producer *

– background vocals, background vocal arrangements *Ian "Beezy" Coleman – background vocals, guitars *

Sharon Marley Sharon Marley (born 23 November 1964) is a Jamaican reggae singer. She is the biological daughter of Rita Marley and was adopted by Bob Marley when the two married. She was in the group Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers along with her younger ...

– background vocals *Rica Newell – background vocals *Tracy Hazzard – background vocals *Vincent Brantley – background vocals *Sean Dancy – background vocals *Tim Fowlles – background vocals *Rock Deadrick – drums, percussion *

Steve Ferrone Stephen A. Ferrone (born 25 April 1950) is an English drummer. He is known as a member of the rock band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers from 1994 to 2017, replacing original drummer Stan Lynch, and as part of the "classic lineup" of the Aver ...

– drums * Brian MacLeod – drums *

James Gadson James Edward Gadson (born June 17, 1939) is an American drummer and session musician. Beginning his career in the late 1960s, Gadson has since become one of the most-recorded drummers in the history of R&B. He is also a singer and songwriter. ...

– drums *Dave Wilder – bass *

Abraham Laboriel Abraham Laboriel López (born July 17, 1947) is a Mexican-American bassist who has played on over 4,000 recordings and soundtracks. ''Guitar Player'' magazine called him "the most widely used session bassist of our time". Laboriel is the fathe ...

– bass *

Guy Erez Guy Erez () is a Los Angeles–based songwriter/producer, composer and virtuoso bass player. Born and raised in Israel, Erez moved to Los Angeles in 1992. His songs have appeared in hit movies and TV shows including the soundtrack to the Oscar- ...

– bass *Paul Stennett – bass * Zac Rae – keyboards *Mike Hyde – keyboards *George Hughes – keyboards * Dave Palmer – keyboards * Brian LeBarton – keyboards *

Lyle Workman Lyle Dean Workman is an American guitarist, composer, session and touring musician, and music producer. His music has been widely distributed since his debut on the eponymous '' Bourgeois Tagg'' album in 1986, and is known for his work as compos ...

– guitars *Takeshi Akimoto – guitars *Randy Gloss – percussion *

Taku Hirano (born October 22, 1973, stylized as Taku Hirano) is a Japanese percussionist and recording artist. He has performed as a solo artist and as one half of the duo Tao Of Sound. He has toured with Fleetwood Mac and Whitney Houston as a percussionist ...

– taiko drums *Ronobir Lahiri – sitar *Todd Simon – horns *Geoff Gallegoi – horns *Fabio Santana – horns *Tracy Wannomae – horns *Liam McCormick – string arrangements *Owen Sutter – string arrangements * Dave Cooley – additional producer, mastering *

Andrew Scheps Andrew Scheps is an American mix engineer, recording engineer, record producer, and record label owner based in Los Angeles and the United Kingdom. He has received Grammy Awards for Best Rock Album for his work on Red Hot Chili Peppers' '' Stadi ...

– mixing *Isha Erskine – engineering *Jared Hirshland – additional engineering *Orly Marley – executive producer *

Neville Garrick Kenneth Neville Anthony Garrick (28 July 1950 – 14 November 2023) was a Jamaican graphic artist and photographer who was based in Los Angeles. He was a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He is best known as Bob Marle ...

– art direction, layout *Souther Salazar – cover artwork and imagery *Rory Wilson – layout *Michelle Rodriguez – production assistant *Matt Solodky – production manager

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2013 albums Tuff Gong albums Ziggy Marley albums Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album