There must be pain before healing. So in that way, the music is revolutionary, because it tells the truth.

One good thing about music, when it hits- you feel no pain

[By entering the family business of music he followed many of his siblings including elder brothers Stephen, Ziggy, Julian and Ky-Mani and sisters Sharon and Cedella. They frequently perform together and in 1992, Ziggy and Stephen formed Ghetto Youths International. So close are the Marley siblings that some joke it is rare to find them on their own.] That's how we perform. There's no other way, ... my unit, it's M-Unit. We don't do anything alone. It's always a family effort.

[Marley recognizes the similarities between hip-hop and the reggae music his father helped put on the international map. They are linked by point of origin -- after all, hip-hop formed when Kool Herc fled Jamaica's mid-Seventies political unrest and headed for the Bronx -- and in terms of their impact.] I love hip-hop music, ... It's rebel music is how I like to speak about it. Hip-hop and reggae come from the same community as far as class -- they both come from the bottom of society.

It's my luck to be at the frontier of what looks to be a resurrection of roots music on the international scene. That's really what reggae music is about: that voice against oppression and struggle.

You say 'African music' and you think 'tribal drumming.' But there's a lot of African music that's like James Brown, and a lot, too, that sounds very Hispanic.