“Road to Zion (f/ Nas)” – Damian Marley
(Words/music: Nasir Jones and Damian Marley, available on Welcome to Jamrock, Tuff Gong / Universal 2005)

“Welcome to Jamrock” was a song I had heard about more than I actually heard, so when I finally sought it out, I was a bit underwhelmed.  After a few listens, it grew on me in a strange way – that “out in the streets, they call it mur-der” sample started popping into my head at random times, and kept returning to Marley’s semi-hypnotic vocal delivery every time I sat in front of my computer.  It started to remind me of the Specials “Ghost Town” – another song about life in the slums.  Both have a haunting feel to them, and both songs were ones that grew on me with repeated listens.

I’m sharing my reaction to “Welcome to Jamrock” so that I can contrast it with my immediate reaction to “Road to Zion.”  I first heard it in my friend Mike’s car – he was listening to a mix a college friend made him and the friend included this song.  As we drove around, we listened to the mix a couple times and specifically came back to “Road to Zion” a few times.  Both “Road to Zion” and “Welcome to Jamrock” cover the same lyrical territory – specifically, life in “Jamrock” is not life in the Jamaica of travel brochures – and both have an (appropriately) dark undercurrent in the music.  However, I find the slowly picked acoustic guitar and Ella Fitzgerald sample (that’s her voice right at the beginning) immediately grabbing.  By the time the beat picks up, I’m completely hooked.  It also helps that “Road to Zion” has a brief hook; it’s not a big, in your face hook, but it gives a different feel to the track; “Jamrock” has Marley rapping in the same sing-songey attack for most of the track, aside from a few drops of the beat for the sample.  Marley has more emotional weight in “Welcome to Jamrock,” and perhaps that’s why people were drawn to it, but “Road to Zion” has a stronger song structure.

Marley’s voice is a departure from most things I listen to – I only have a cursory knowledge of reggae that extends to a couple Desmond Dekker and Jimmy Cliff collections (suggestions welcome in the comments), so I’m completely taken in by Damian Marley’s half rapping, half singing delivery.  The Nas verse also fits well – he has a couple excellent lines (in particular, I love the one about having “daymares”) and crams in enough allusion and name dropping for an entire track, let alone one guest verse.  Marley seems to have pushed Nas to deliver a quality verse – and I think Nas tends to respond well when he’s driven to perform, kind of like an athlete that wants the ball at the buzzer to take that final shot.  There’s word that Marley and Nas are working on a full album collaboration at the moment, and if it sounds like “Road to Zion,” you can count me in.

More on Damian Marley: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm