Posthumous Bob Marley and The Wailers Album Honors Reggae Icon’s Afrobeats Roots

More than 40 years after his death, Bob Marley‘s lyrics and messages continue to resurface, while his music with The Wailers is celebrated by artists crossing all genres. On August 4, Marley and the Wailers’ reggae and Afrobeats roots are also being honored on the posthumous album, Africa Unite.

The 10-track album pays tribute to the reggae icons and fuses some of their greatest hits — “Stir It Up,” “Waiting in Vain,” and more — with the music of Afrobeats. Nigerian Afrobeats artists Teni and Oxlade also perform their rendition of Marley’s Exodus single “Three Little Birds,” originally released in 1980.

Africa Unite — named after the sixth track from Marley’s 1979 Survival album — features a collection of several contemporary Afrobeats artists. The project includes Tiwa Savage, Sarkodie, Utty O, Winky, Rema, Ami Faku, Afro B, Ayar Starr, and Patoranking, with each adding their voices to Marley and the Wailers’ iconic songs, along with interlaced Afrobeats rhythms.

“‘Africa Unite’ is an album that showcases the importance of Bob Marley in modern-day Africa,” said Marley’s daughter Cedella Marley, in a statement. “The artists that feature on this album have reimagined Bob Marley’s classics in a way we know he would have loved and been proud of.”

“There is no doubt that Bob’s discography has always permeated African societies, inspiring generations to come,” read a description of the album on the Bob Marley website. “Marley has profoundly impacted music — something that cannot be denied. Countless contemporary musicians have acknowledged their admiration for the reggae pioneer.”

Marley also had a definitive impact on Afrobeats music and was posthumously inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. Marley released his final album with the Wailers, Uprising, in 1980, less than a year before his death on May 11, 1981, from cancer at the age of 36.

In January 2024, the biopic, Bob Marley: One Love, is set to hit theaters. Directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green (King Richard), the film will star Kingsley Ben-Adir as the reggae legend.

Photo: Pete Still/Redferns