Bob Marley, Rasta Man was born Robert Nesta Marley in February 1945 in St. Ann, Jamaica. He was fathered by a white man and had a black mother. In the 1950s Bob and his family moved to the capital city of Jamaica, Kingston. It was in this city that his obsession with music as a profession began to take root. Bob Marley spent much of his time listening to soul and rhythm and blues music, which ultimately became the inspiration of his reggae rhythms. It was in the streets of Kingston that he enjoyed listening to the beats of the various rhythms and then trying to play music himself in small music studios in Kingston.

Together with Bunny Livingston and Peter McIntosh, Bob Marley formed a group named the Wailing Wailers. In 1963, this group came out with their first album which featured the hit “Simmer Down”. The lyrics of their songs tell a lot about young children seeking their own identity by becoming hoodlums in the streets of Kingston. In the mid 1960s, the Wailing Wailers disbanded but not before they traveled to America. In 1966 Bob Marley, Rasta Man returned to his native Jamaica, to coincide with the visit of the King of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie. A year later in 1967 Marley was introduced to the Rastafarian doctrine, and with The Wailers, his new band which was formed a year later with his two older friends, Livingston and McIntosh, he expressed the moral values of Rasta through his reggae music. Rastafarian adherents then began to consider Bob Marley a prophet, spreading the Rasta values and inspiration through his music.

The Wailers broke up in 1971, but Bob quickly formed a new band that he named Bob Marley and The Wailers. In 1972, the “Catch A Fire” album was released which was followed by “Uprising”, “Rasta Man Vibration”, Natty Dread”, “I Shot the Sheriff” “Get Up, Stand Up”, and “Burning” all of which increasingly established Bob Marley as a musical icon of reggae in the musical mainstream.

Bob Marley received the UN Peace Medal in recognition of his efforts to promote peace through his music. IN 1981, cancer ended his life at the age of 36 years in a hospital bed in the city of Miami, USA, following an international concert in Germany. The Rasta Prophet may be gone, but he is still remembered for his inspiration.