Ziggy Marley Biography and Quotes

David Nesta “Ziggy” Marley was born on October 17, 1968 in Trenchtown, Jamaica. He is a musician, guitarist, singer and songwriter, and also the leader of the band Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers. He plays Guitars, Piano, and Percussion.  His genre of music is Reggae which he inherited from his father Bob Marley. The nickname Ziggy was given to him by his father according to whom it meant a small joint.He and his siblings made his debut recording with his father titled Children Playing in the Streets. This group was named melody makers and played occasionally for many years. Play the Game Right was their debut LP, Long Playing, which was pop-oriented and earned him disapproval of critics. Later they moved to Virgin Records and recorded Conscious Party in 1988. This album got him popularity and critical success. His other successful albums were One Bright Day in 1989 and Jahmekya in 1991. His albums, Free Like We Want 2 B and Joy and Blues, started declining in sales in the beginning of 1990.Ziggy worked with United Nations and created a record label which was called Ghetto Youths Crew. Then he released two solo albums, Dragonfly in 2003 and Love is my Religion in 2006. The later album won him his fourth Grammy Awards. In 1009, he released Family Tree, a solo children’s album, by his independent record company Tuff Gong.He has founded a charity to help children with name URGE, Unlimited Resources giving Enlightenment. He also signed to support Little Kids Rock which is a non-profit organization providing free musical instruments and lessons to children in public schools throughout US. He and his group contributed to the Disney album, For Our Children, the song Give A Little Love. The proceeds of this album is given to the Pediatric AIDS Foundation. Ziggy Marley  has done some guest appearances in few of the television series like Family Matters and Charmed. He along with his Melody makers also appeared as guest performer in the kid’s television show Sesame Street. They recorded the song Believe in Yourself, a reggae-style song, for the children’s series Arthur.He gave voice to the character Ernie in the movie Shark Tales. He also gave voice to Crockadle in an episode of My Gym Partner’s a Monkey, Chesire Cat for Wonder Pets, Reflux the Knaaren for the Ubisoft video game Rayman 3. He has performed duets with various artists Sting, Angelique Kidjo, Taj Mahal, Dora the Explorer, Sean Paul, The Chieftains, and others.