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Bob Marley’s former The Wailers bandmate Bunny Wailer has reportedly taken aim at rapper Snoop Dogg for posing as a member of the Rastafari movement after immersing himself in Jamaican culture last year.

The hip-hop superstar previously revealed he had been anointed Snoop Lion by a Rastafarian priest after experiencing a spiritual awakening while recording his first reggae project, “Reincarnated.” He adopted the traditional dress and dreadlocked hair during his time in Jamaica and filmed his transformation for a documentary, also titled “Reincarnated.”

But Wailer is not convinced by Snoop’s new lifestyle and he has accused the rapper of the “outright fraudulent use of (the) Rastafari community’s personalities and symbolism,” according to TMZ.

Members of the Rastafari Millennium Council have also launched a verbal attack on Snoop, demanding he refrain from using the moniker Snoop Lion and apologize for his behavior or face legal action, according to TMZ. They have also fired off a seven-page letter to the marijuana-loving star, insisting that “smoking weed and loving Bob Marley and reggae music is not what defines the Rastafari Indigenous Culture.”

(Reuters) – Bob Marley’s family lost a lawsuit seeking the copyrights to several of the late Jamaican reggae singer’s best-known recordings. U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan said the UMG Recordings unit of Vivendi SA’s Universal Music Group is the rightful owner of copyrights to five albums that Marley had recorded between 1973 and 1977 for Island Records. The albums “Catch a Fire,” “Burnin’,” “Natty Dread,” “Rastaman Vibrations” and “Exodus” were recorded with Marley’s band The Wailers. They include some of Marley’s best-known songs, including “Get Up, Stand Up,” “I Shot the Sheriff,” “No Woman, No Cry” and “One Love.”

Marley died of cancer in 1981 at age 36.

Friday night’s ruling is a defeat for Marley’s widow Rita and nine children who had sought to recover millions of dollars in damages over UMG’s effort to “exploit” what they called “the quintessential Bob Marley sound recordings.” (more…)

It has been a long and winding road to Zion, or perhaps the road actually leads from Zion. It would after all be fitting considering “Road to Zion” which was on Damian Marley’s Welcome to Jamrock LP, is the first time Damian Marley and Nas collaborated. It was an effort that went so well that they decided to do an album together, and unlike past collaborative album efforts between rappers and non-rappers, this effort is a truly cooperative and harmonic effort. The common root between Hip-Hop and Reggae is thoroughly appreciated by those who truly understand the history of Hip-hop but this album is perhaps it’s deepest expression. Recorded mostly in front of a live band Distant Relatives (more…)