Protesters marching in London Saturday called for an investigation into the death of one-time reggae star Smiley Culture during a police raid on his home.

About 600 people joined the march to New Scotland Yard, Channel 4 News reported. Police described the demonstration, which featured reggae music and chants of "No Justice, No Peace" as "noisy but peaceful."

Smiley Culture was the stage name of David Victor Emmanuel, 48, who was born in London in 1963 to a couple who had immigrated from the Caribbean. He became a hit in the 1980s as a disc jockey and recording artist, although his celebrity did not outlast the decade.

Reggae icon Bob Marley, in his highly acclaimed Redemption Song, exhorted listeners: "Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds."Most fans attribute the saying to him. Only a relative few are aware that Marley was quoting from a 1937 speech given by pan-African visionary Marcus Mosiah Garvey.  The ultimate irony is that they don't know because they have never read Marcus Garvey, the philosophical fountainhead for Marley.Were it not for Marley's clever musical cloaking of this profound idea, it would never have gained such popularity. And this speaks to two unfortunate truths which may be limiting the career achievements of a lot of people.  Both reveal why many people, while celebrating the Jamaica 50 Jubilee, remain mentally enslaved to states such as fear, ignorance, low self-esteem, self-doubt and pessimism.

A new social media campaign hopes to harness the power of celebrities and a Bob Marley song to help bring awareness to the thousands suffering from the famine in the Horn of Africa.  The "I'm Gonna Be Your Friend" campaign, which kicks off Tuesday, is named for a line in Marley's 1973 song "High Tide Or Low Tide."  It uses the song as the soundtrack to a short film on the East African crisis directed by award-winning director Kevin MacDonald. Among MacDonald's movies is the critically acclaimed "Last King of Scotland."

The City Council will declare Aug. 7 Bob Marley Day in Los Angeles, honoring the late iconic Jamaican reggae singer-songwriter in connection with the DVD release of the documentary “Marley.” Two of Marley’s children, Ziggy and Karen, will accept a proclamation from Councilman Tom LaBonge announcing Bob Marley Day in Los Angeles. Born Feb. 6, 1945, in the rural community of Nine Miles in the mountainous terrain of the Jamaican parish of St. Ann, Marley went on to become the rhythm guitarist and lead singer for the ska, rocksteady and reggae bands The Wailers and Bob Marley & and The Wailers. 

Reggae is a complex Afro-Jamaican twentieth-century musical phenomenon that has profoundly influenced global popular musical culture. As a genre of modern black cultural production, reggae music dates from the 1970s, when it emerged from the musical confluence of ska and rock steady, two forms born in early postcolonial Jamaica. As a cultural practice in Jamaican postcolonial society, reggae was closely tied to subaltern representations of slavery, colonialism, history, and Africa. As a consequence in many instances reggae became a counter-hegemonic practice critiquing the formal Jamaican Creole nationalist project of political independence.

Ska was a 1960s musical synthesis that ruptured the Jamaican musical form known as mento, which emerged from the encounter between European colonialism, racial plantation slavery, and the slave African population. Mento adapted and morphed the harmonic structures, instrumentation, and melodies of European musical styles into indigenous sounds.

It's mid-summer in Northern California and reggae rhythms will once again be reverberating off Southern Humboldt's golden rolling hills. Arguably Humboldt County's most historic and world-renowned gathering centered around live music, this weekend's 28th annual Reggae on the River offers a “global music experience,” according to the festival's promoters at the Mateel. ”Featuring a lineup consisting of more than 30 classic and cutting-edge artists on two stages, the festival (at the Benbow Lake State Recreation Area) will celebrate Jamaica's 50th anniversary of independence from imperial rule and will honor this momentous occasion by presenting some of the island's best talent,” according to a news release.

Stephen Marley, the eight-time Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter, producer and son of legendary reggae artist Bob Marley, has proven time and time again that his blood runs pure with naturally gifted musical ability. After many years of helping produce/write songs for other Marley family projects, Stephen released his first solo album “Mind Control” in 2007 to widespread critical acclaim. It was quickly honored with a Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album. Last year, Stephen released the album, entitled “Revelation Part 1: The Root Of Life,” which also won a Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album.

Bob Marley the charismatic beloved Jamaican singer, who introduced reggae infused with Rastafarian themes died from a cancerous brain Tumor on May 11, 1981 in Miami. Florida. He was only 36 years old.

It’s been 30 years since his death; and there have many rumors and speculation about the cause of death. Did he really die from a brain tumor? Or other nefarious causes? Like the CIA? Poison in his boots etc?

Bob Marley’s medical records were never made public. However from several sources I managed to piece together the story of his illness and death from Metastatic Skin Cancer (Melanoma). This account I hope is fair, balanced and enlightening.

International reggae artiste Kwabena Nip plans to feed Africa. The Jamaica-born singer said he left Jamaica at a young age and has been on a spiritual journey, taking up residence in several countries in the process. It was as a result of one of his sojourns that he became passionate about the African continent.

"I was born in Jamaica but I have spent periods of my life in Gambia, Ghana, England, anywhere the music takes me, so I would say I live nowhere, I am an all-rounder," he said.

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