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Ky-Mani Marley Interview · The Breakfast Club

0:01
Speaker 1: Real people, real celebrity joined the Breakfast Morning everybody is
0:08
Speaker 1: DJ m Vy Angela Ye, Charlomagne the guy. We are
0:11
Speaker 1: to Breakfast Club special guests in the building this morning.
0:14
Speaker 1: Kamani Marley, Sir, Good morning, sir, what's up my brother?
0:18
Speaker 1: Thanks for having that means adventurous traveler, right. Yeah. You
0:23
Speaker 1: woman said I said you had my spot the other
0:26
Speaker 1: day in Brooklyn footprints. Yeah yeah, yeah, really I got
0:31
Speaker 1: there all the time. That's not a little Brooklyn spot.
0:34
Speaker 1: It maybe a stupid question, but you'll never get tired
0:36
Speaker 1: as you're making food, you know it. It's so much.
0:41
Speaker 1: It's so much because they say we're from many one.
0:43
Speaker 1: People say you have like Indian Jamaican food, and you
0:45
Speaker 1: have Chinese Jamaican food, and you got Jamaican Jamaican. Yeah,
0:49
Speaker 1: it's a lot of options. Like jamase, well you have
0:54
Speaker 1: a new album coming out next week, got new album
0:57
Speaker 1: coming out and been a while? Yeah, well why years
1:00
Speaker 1: of a break? Counting that money? I wish um. I
1:06
Speaker 1: think you know it was just that I was just
1:09
Speaker 1: you know, trying to get away from my last company.
1:10
Speaker 1: And so we went through that process of PaperWorks and
1:13
Speaker 1: everything else. And then you know, after that it was
1:15
Speaker 1: making sure that when I do release this album, that
1:18
Speaker 1: that that the production is on point and the lyrical
1:21
Speaker 1: content it's on point, and we do have a complete
1:23
Speaker 1: album versus you know, running the student making a few
1:26
Speaker 1: songs and then trying to throw it all out on
1:27
Speaker 1: the album. It was important for me to to make
1:30
Speaker 1: sure that I was comfortable, and I was, you know
1:32
Speaker 1: what I mean, I'm excited about it. So is there
1:35
Speaker 1: any pressure with your dad? Of course being ball Molly
1:37
Speaker 1: to make sure. It's kind of like, you know, he's
1:40
Speaker 1: the great NBA player. Now you're in the league and
1:42
Speaker 1: you want to score just as much or more. Um,
1:48
Speaker 1: you know what, I've never felt that pressure because I
1:50
Speaker 1: think the mark that my father left there is there
1:54
Speaker 1: is you. You can't duplicate that, you know what I mean,
1:57
Speaker 1: That wouldn't be replicated. And so for me, it was
1:59
Speaker 1: just important to stay true to the legacy, stay true
2:02
Speaker 1: to myself, and just try to make good music. And
2:04
Speaker 1: you know, see what comes of it now. The true
2:06
Speaker 1: you weren't aware of your musical abilities as a child,
2:09
Speaker 1: I ain't growing up. For me, the furthest thing from
2:13
Speaker 1: my mind was music, you know what I mean? For me,
2:15
Speaker 1: it was all about playing football at the ball playing
2:18
Speaker 1: basketball or whatever it may be. And so for me,
2:21
Speaker 1: my music, I said all the time, like my musical
2:23
Speaker 1: career started kind of like a fluke, kind of like
2:25
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. I'm at a friend house
2:28
Speaker 1: playing around. He had a little sound system, and he
2:29
Speaker 1: was like, he's going out to play tonight, so I
2:31
Speaker 1: should give him a dub playing I'm like Brown sing like, well,
2:35
Speaker 1: you're Marley, so it don't matter. Just stay and you know,
2:39
Speaker 1: I started playing around on the mic and at the
2:42
Speaker 1: time of producer by the name Macarl Peterson walked and
2:44
Speaker 1: Carl used to do some work with my pops in
2:47
Speaker 1: the early days. You know, he kind of said to me,
2:49
Speaker 1: you got a nice tone. You know, you should come
2:51
Speaker 1: through the studio and see what we can do. And
2:54
Speaker 1: started going there once a week, started writing music, and
2:57
Speaker 1: one thing led to the other. One of the earliest
2:59
Speaker 1: songs I wrote was a song called their Dad was
3:01
Speaker 1: a letter to my pops, and that's what got me
3:04
Speaker 1: my first record deal. And it was funny because I
3:06
Speaker 1: wrote that song when I was about sixteen and got
3:08
Speaker 1: the deal when I was about eighteen. And you know,
3:11
Speaker 1: I took that little bus ride. Yeah I am. Now
3:13
Speaker 1: you also have memoirs called their Dad as well. Yeah, right,
3:16
Speaker 1: and that was I remember that came out like five
3:19
Speaker 1: years ago. Five years ago. Yeah, it was a little
3:22
Speaker 1: bit controversial at the time because there were some interesting
3:25
Speaker 1: things in there. I think that people didn't know about you. Yeah.
3:28
Speaker 1: I believe the family wasn't too happy with some of it.
3:31
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't think the family was unhappy about
3:35
Speaker 1: any of it, but I think when I come from
3:40
Speaker 1: very humble beginnings, and I don't know if that's what they,
3:43
Speaker 1: you know, thought would be controversial or not. But I'm
3:45
Speaker 1: from very humble beginnings. You know. I was living, I
3:48
Speaker 1: was raising Jamaica until I was eight years old, in
3:50
Speaker 1: a little wooden two bedroom house a little countryside and
3:56
Speaker 1: I remember my grandma moving to America and Mom telling me,
4:01
Speaker 1: you know, Grandma's final for us, so we'll be living
4:03
Speaker 1: in America soon. And I just remember I had this
4:05
Speaker 1: image of what my home was gonna be like in
4:08
Speaker 1: this new life that I was heading to. And I
4:09
Speaker 1: still remember the night, you know, coming over landing in
4:12
Speaker 1: Miami and just seeing all the lights and being you know,
4:15
Speaker 1: in awe, and it was nights. I remember when I
4:20
Speaker 1: got to the house looked like the house I had
4:22
Speaker 1: in my light, the house I had late. Yeah, it
4:27
Speaker 1: was in Miami. I grew up in Liberty City. And
4:31
Speaker 1: so when I woke up the morning, I realized that
4:34
Speaker 1: I was still in the two bedroom with the house
4:37
Speaker 1: with nine people, worse than the one that I left
4:39
Speaker 1: in Jamaica, and across the street from a crack house. Wow,
4:43
Speaker 1: and so and so that was my introduction, you know
4:46
Speaker 1: what I mean. And people might have envisioned you growing
4:49
Speaker 1: up with like a silver spoon in you. Everybody exactly,
4:51
Speaker 1: you know. They would assume that your dad is Bob Maller,
4:53
Speaker 1: that you had riches and you had mansions in Jamaica, right,
4:57
Speaker 1: but you were kind of cut off. I wouldn't say
4:59
Speaker 1: cut off. It was just, you know, the things that
5:02
Speaker 1: was happening at that particular time for your family got
5:05
Speaker 1: mad at you were telling the truth what they want
5:07
Speaker 1: you to do to say, talk about how you came up.
5:10
Speaker 1: The family wasn't mad. I think people just assumed that
5:13
Speaker 1: that family was mad, you know what I mean. But
5:14
Speaker 1: it's your truth, is your truth, you know what I mean,
5:17
Speaker 1: No matter what it is, no matter how good, no
5:19
Speaker 1: matter how bad, the truth is your truth, and you
5:20
Speaker 1: can't really you can't go around it. Do you ever
5:23
Speaker 1: think that our record labels were possibly just giving you
5:26
Speaker 1: deals because of who because of your last name? I
5:28
Speaker 1: wasn't getting no deals. Oh it actually can help and
5:32
Speaker 1: hurt you don't. It's definitely a double bladed short because
5:36
Speaker 1: a lot of people, you know, I think they assume
5:38
Speaker 1: that you don't you don't need the chance, or you
5:40
Speaker 1: don't deserve the chance because you're from such and and
5:43
Speaker 1: and so, and then you have a lot of people
5:45
Speaker 1: that will give you that opportunity because you know they're interested,
5:47
Speaker 1: and there they gravitate to the name and the legacy.
5:50
Speaker 1: So you know it works both ways. Right now? Do
5:53
Speaker 1: you get like, how is that broken down? There's so
5:55
Speaker 1: much Bob Marley stuff out there. I mean everything Bob
5:59
Speaker 1: Marley had, merchandise, merchants. I mean it might be a
6:02
Speaker 1: Bob Molly liquor, like a beard. Everything is Bob. That's
6:06
Speaker 1: a family eat off for that. Yeah, Marley the other
6:10
Speaker 1: day and he was telling me about the coffee that
6:13
Speaker 1: you guys have coming out? Is it weed in it?
6:16
Speaker 1: Not yet working on the fusion? Yeah? Did you guys
6:24
Speaker 1: eat off for all that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely, definitely,
6:28
Speaker 1: definitely the family benefits from everything that's out there in Marley.
6:32
Speaker 1: How many brothers and sisters do you have? Oh? How
6:34
Speaker 1: it's ten of us? Ten of wow us. Who are
6:37
Speaker 1: you closest to Damien? Would you say? Could? You guys
6:39
Speaker 1: are the youngest and work together a lot. I'm close
6:43
Speaker 1: to all my brothers, you know, I'm close up, But
6:45
Speaker 1: I grew up at wrong because we both grew up
6:46
Speaker 1: in Miami, so you know when he was playing for
6:49
Speaker 1: the Hurricanes. Yeah, we grew up together. I would be
6:52
Speaker 1: closer to him in that sense. Ya really as sports
6:56
Speaker 1: in your family, man, he played for Hurricanes coming up, Yeah, yeah,
7:00
Speaker 1: play a lot of football. Yeah. My mom is a
7:04
Speaker 1: table tennis champion, you know, so we're pretty athletic bunch.
7:10
Speaker 1: What you mean, I'm pretty good at table tennis? Is
7:14
Speaker 1: very You gotta have good and the eye coordination. Time
7:21
Speaker 1: I was in them days when making money you just
7:26
Speaker 1: represent now she traveled the world, but in them time
7:33
Speaker 1: to table tennis, table tennis making money Now I have
7:35
Speaker 1: no ain't making no money now. I mean it's table tennis.
7:38
Speaker 1: What is the sport? It's the same thing as ping,
7:40
Speaker 1: pong right. Well, yeah, now how do you make the
7:43
Speaker 1: most of your money right now? Like the music? I
7:45
Speaker 1: know you got your clothing line confrontation, Yeah, yeah, something
7:51
Speaker 1: we're working on um right now. It's it's definitely music,
7:54
Speaker 1: definitely music. You know, we did a few movie projects.
7:58
Speaker 1: We did the one thing did the shot Classic shot.
8:02
Speaker 1: Shots is kind of like your life, almost a piece
8:06
Speaker 1: of it, you know, like Jamaica, Miami selling drugs a
8:10
Speaker 1: piece of it, a piece of it. I don't know
8:13
Speaker 1: if you want to admit that on camera. That would
8:17
Speaker 1: have been embarrassing though, during a period of time in
8:20
Speaker 1: your life to get arrested, like for selling drugs something
8:22
Speaker 1: like that, then you know that probably would have been
8:25
Speaker 1: a big let down, that would have been. But you know,
8:28
Speaker 1: some you grew up in these environments and sometimes you know,
8:33
Speaker 1: I don't want to say that was a product of that. Well,
8:35
Speaker 1: I definitely was a product of that environment. But we
8:37
Speaker 1: also have choices to make. You know, sometimes we go
8:40
Speaker 1: through things where we feel as though the choices we
8:44
Speaker 1: make is the only choice we have to make at
8:46
Speaker 1: that particular time. And you know, for me, it was
8:49
Speaker 1: just it was an interesting role because I have a
8:53
Speaker 1: lot of friends that's that's not here. And I have
8:56
Speaker 1: a lot of friends that's here, but I never see
8:58
Speaker 1: the light of day again. M and um. So for me,
9:02
Speaker 1: it's it's it's going through all these tribes and tribulation
9:04
Speaker 1: and you know, feeling this though, well maybe it's not
9:08
Speaker 1: it's not it's not just luck that's keeping me out
9:11
Speaker 1: of trouble, you know what I mean. Maybe my life
9:14
Speaker 1: do have a purpose. So it's important for me to
9:16
Speaker 1: start seeking and finding what that purpose is and making
9:19
Speaker 1: sure that I moved towards my purpose. Right. I watched
9:23
Speaker 1: the video for All the Way You actually film that
9:26
Speaker 1: in Jamaica. That in Jamaica. Yeah, it's a beautiful song. Yeah,
9:30
Speaker 1: thank you. What do you prefer Jamaica on Miami? Man? Oh,
9:33
Speaker 1: Jamaica all the Way? Jamaica's paradise you ever been? Absolutely okay,
9:39
Speaker 1: don't leave the resort and you know what, and and
9:44
Speaker 1: that's the and that's the best about it because we Jamaicans,
9:48
Speaker 1: you don't hear about tourists being hurt. You know, sometimes
9:52
Speaker 1: you have a little one tourist that wanted out into
9:54
Speaker 1: the wilderness and you know they might get they're probably
9:57
Speaker 1: taken away, but you don't hear about Jamaican hurts and
10:00
Speaker 1: tourists like that's that's never in the news. Um, the
10:03
Speaker 1: majority of the team that got laid down thro oh
10:06
Speaker 1: that wasn't biased. I mean the violence is it's just
10:14
Speaker 1: like here, it's within the community, you know what I mean.
10:18
Speaker 1: It doesn't reach the outskirts where the tourists would be.
10:22
Speaker 1: And so yeah, so if you're listening, come to Jamaica
10:24
Speaker 1: anytime you're safe. It's one of my favorite places to visit.
10:27
Speaker 1: I'm going in September again. But my friend's birthday. Now,
10:32
Speaker 1: I told you I met your brother, Rohan Marline. Now,
10:34
Speaker 1: when you guys decide to do like a venture doesn't
10:37
Speaker 1: have to get approved, like say you say, okay, I
10:39
Speaker 1: want to come out with the headphones or he's doing
10:42
Speaker 1: the coffee. Is it something that you all have to
10:44
Speaker 1: sit down and say, Okay, we're gonna use the estate
10:46
Speaker 1: name for this. Everybody. Yeah, the family goes through that.
10:49
Speaker 1: It definitely has to be approved, because it definitely has
10:52
Speaker 1: you know, we have to feel it though. It it's
10:55
Speaker 1: along the line. It's it's along the line of the
10:58
Speaker 1: legacy and what you know, the brand represents. So it's
11:02
Speaker 1: definitely a conversation that takes place and for approval. Who
11:07
Speaker 1: runs the estate? My sister runs yesterday. Man, you're relatively
11:13
Speaker 1: young man. How old are you and your father player?
11:15
Speaker 1: I was five years old, my brother, okay, it was
11:18
Speaker 1: five years old my father. Do you have any memories
11:20
Speaker 1: with him? I have one memory, you know what I mean?
11:24
Speaker 1: One memory, and that memory is um him picking me
11:28
Speaker 1: up in a little I'm from a little town called
11:31
Speaker 1: five month in Trelani and him picking me up. He
11:33
Speaker 1: had my older brother, Stephen with him. I'm a friend
11:36
Speaker 1: of his by the name of Sang who was a
11:38
Speaker 1: guitar player, and picked me and my mom up and
11:42
Speaker 1: he went up to nine miles is where he was from.
11:45
Speaker 1: And you know it's funny. I remember he had he
11:47
Speaker 1: had just got back from America. So he had this
11:49
Speaker 1: nice sling shot, first time sin one made of iron
11:52
Speaker 1: and you know all the nice fancy things where you
11:54
Speaker 1: should have ones. You just find a branch on the
11:57
Speaker 1: tree and mate then and I remember, yeah, that slings
12:00
Speaker 1: I didn't. Me and my older brother went into the
12:01
Speaker 1: woods to go shoot that birds and somehow the slingshot
12:04
Speaker 1: got lost on the way back. And I remember my
12:07
Speaker 1: Stephen at the time telling me that you know, you
12:10
Speaker 1: lost daddy slingshot, You're gonna be in trouble. And I remember,
12:13
Speaker 1: you know, he's just going back and forward telling them
12:15
Speaker 1: he didn't want that lost it. So I remember walking
12:18
Speaker 1: back to the house. She was standing in the doorway,
12:20
Speaker 1: and I walked up to him and I said, Daddy,
12:23
Speaker 1: I lost the sling shot. Daddyn't lose the slingshot. And
12:26
Speaker 1: he looked down and he laughed. And it was at
12:28
Speaker 1: that point I realized, Okay, well I'm not getting the beating.
12:32
Speaker 1: So I went back off the play and that's the
12:33
Speaker 1: only memory I have with my father. Wow. Wow, Yeah.
12:38
Speaker 1: But how hard was it for you to put out
12:40
Speaker 1: the song, Dear Dad? That was a personal letter man?
12:43
Speaker 1: You know what I said that. I said all the
12:45
Speaker 1: time that that song for me was the hardest song
12:47
Speaker 1: and the easiest song to write. You know, because even
12:50
Speaker 1: at the time of writing the song, I wasn't trying
12:53
Speaker 1: to write a Dear Dad song. I was actually trying
12:56
Speaker 1: to write some other lyrics and I was having a
12:58
Speaker 1: little writer's block. I stepped away for a second, went
13:01
Speaker 1: to read the Bible, and came back, and for some reason,
13:04
Speaker 1: the first words was dear God, I haven't let to
13:07
Speaker 1: hear from me to that. And that song pretty much
13:11
Speaker 1: wrote itself, like it's the only song I've ever written
13:16
Speaker 1: that I never had to think once of what the
13:18
Speaker 1: next word is going to be. And and I remember
13:21
Speaker 1: that in the middle of writing that song, I broke
13:23
Speaker 1: down because it was so it was so emotional. You know,
13:26
Speaker 1: I've never really expressed anything. I'm not really want to
13:31
Speaker 1: bring my problems to people, so I've never really expressed,
13:33
Speaker 1: you know, my feelings and what I'm feeling towards this
13:36
Speaker 1: whole situation. And so I wrote it in the song
13:39
Speaker 1: and I remember, you know, being halfway through and then
13:41
Speaker 1: just just tears, just running like a river and had
13:46
Speaker 1: to take a step away from it, and I came
13:47
Speaker 1: back to it, and you know, just like I didn't stop.
13:49
Speaker 1: The song just wrote itself. And you know, for maybe
13:52
Speaker 1: the first year of singing that song on stage, it
13:55
Speaker 1: was a very emotional time. But you know, that song
13:58
Speaker 1: it's very very it's as if you ever heard it,
14:00
Speaker 1: it's a very personal song. So that's what it is.
14:05
Speaker 1: Which what trades and qualities do you have that people
14:08
Speaker 1: who know your father say, yeah, that's that's your um
14:12
Speaker 1: I think I always hear humility. Yeah, I think that's
14:18
Speaker 1: that's the trait. A lot of people say I sound
14:20
Speaker 1: like him too. Yes, that's what I got. But the
14:25
Speaker 1: album is coming out next week and it's very you
14:27
Speaker 1: know what I was I was listening to some of
14:28
Speaker 1: the songs that you have on there. Now, I was wondering,
14:31
Speaker 1: do you ever go to the club and dagger or
14:33
Speaker 1: anything like that? All? Yeah, I got to the club
14:41
Speaker 1: one enjoy the festivities. I watched the guy anything ever,
14:46
Speaker 1: no wild man dry myself, you know what I mean.
14:49
Speaker 1: But I'm definitely not jumping off speakers or jump none
14:54
Speaker 1: of that. Yeah, Now you gotta sing all people are equal,
14:57
Speaker 1: no one is above or beneath him. Yeah, that's true.
15:03
Speaker 1: I mean, that's just that's not even something that's up
15:06
Speaker 1: for discussion. That's is what it is, you know what
15:09
Speaker 1: I mean. Because you have a dollar more than me,
15:10
Speaker 1: don't make you any more especial than me. Just make
15:12
Speaker 1: you have a dollar more than me. And if you
15:15
Speaker 1: have a dollar less than me, it's the same thing.
15:17
Speaker 1: I mean. So, and you're back on staring, back on
15:20
Speaker 1: the road. You're back on touring, back on the road,
15:23
Speaker 1: tour touring, the West Coast July ninth to the twenty ninth,
15:27
Speaker 1: take a break off and August, and we're turning the
15:32
Speaker 1: East coast in September. We also have a um Little
15:35
Speaker 1: Our release party at LPR on the twenty ninth. It's
15:38
Speaker 1: that Monday, next Monday. So yeah, I'm excited, you know
15:43
Speaker 1: what I mean. I'm excited. I'm looking forward to getting
15:47
Speaker 1: back on the road. I'm looking forward to, you know,
15:49
Speaker 1: letting the people here what I've been working on. So
15:52
Speaker 1: we can't tell when you're excited, you know why, because
15:59
Speaker 1: you're there. You get it my own life. We appreciate
16:03
Speaker 1: you joining us. Oh and one more thing I want
16:04
Speaker 1: to ask you about was the Marley documentary. What did
16:06
Speaker 1: you think about that? Did you love that document I
16:09
Speaker 1: love it, I love it. I love it. That documentary
16:11
Speaker 1: was on point. I even learned a few things, you
16:13
Speaker 1: know what I mean. So that documentary was nice. If
16:16
Speaker 1: you got a chance to watch it was a nice documentary,
16:18
Speaker 1: well put together. Well are some things that you didn't
16:21
Speaker 1: know you said that you learned from the documentary? Oh wow,
16:23
Speaker 1: I can't even remember right now, but it was a
16:25
Speaker 1: few things like wow, you know, I didn't had no
16:28
Speaker 1: knowledge of oh, of your of your pops. Yeah, okay, okay.
16:31
Speaker 1: Did you go out of your way to do research though,
16:33
Speaker 1: like when you got old, like when you got older,
16:34
Speaker 1: like I do want to know the history of my pop.
16:36
Speaker 1: Did you talk to people? You know what, I never
16:38
Speaker 1: really went out of my way to do research because
16:40
Speaker 1: there was always somebody there telling you about it, you
16:43
Speaker 1: know what I mean, whether it was my grandma, God
16:45
Speaker 1: bless her. So she's going out where she you know,
16:47
Speaker 1: always telling you stories. And then you go to Jamain
16:50
Speaker 1: can run into a whole bunch of his old friends
16:52
Speaker 1: and they give your history, you know, a little piece
16:54
Speaker 1: of day history. So it's been like that absolutely. Well,
16:58
Speaker 1: thank you again for joining us, Thanks for having stores.
17:04
Speaker 1: And it's the Breakfast Club.