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Skip Marley

Source: Oleg Sharov / UMusic

Chart-topping two-time Grammy©-nominated Skip Marley has ample reason to celebrate, as the young artist earned his first RIAA Gold certified single for the #1 global smash “Slow Down” with Grammy© Award-winning artist H.E.R.  The news of the Gold certification, which acknowledges sales and streaming equivalents of 500,000 units in the U.S., arrives as Tuff Gong/Island Records releases a special one-year anniversary expanded limited edition vinyl LP of HIGHER PLACE (released September 10th), his debut EP originally released August 28th, 2020.  The moment was amplified with the additional welcomed news of Skip’s triumphant return to stage shows after a long hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic’s effects on the touring industry, including an electric evening in Prospect Park in August, where he lit up the Brooklyn sky with a headlining performance at the BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival, and two slots at Austin City Limits. The singer-songwriter’s most recent single “Vibe,” was released on October 1, 2021 and features Popcaan. The FADER dubbed it a “dancefloor-ready track.”HIGHER PLACE, Skip’s debut EP released in 2020, contains wall-to-wall classics.  There’s the history-making #1 global hit “Slow Down” with H.E.R.“Make Me Feel” featuring fellow Miami hitmaker Rick Ross and Ari Lennox; and “No Love,” which Skip worked on with soul icon Betty Wright (Skip’s legend­ary mentor and longtime family friend) to create a gritty reggae vibe that samples Wu-Tang Clan’s “Tearz,” a track from their seminal first LP, Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers).  The Marley family imprint is also on the record’s opening title track, “Higher Place,” a ‘virtual’ duet with the immortal King of Reggae, Bob Marley (1945-1981, Skip’s grandfather); and “That’s Not True,” a collabo featuring Damian ‘Jr. Gong’ Marley (Skip’s uncle).  HIGHER PLACE is now expanded to album length with the addition of two bonus track remixes: “Slow Down” (Afrobeat Remix) featuring DaVido & Oxlade; and “Make Me Feel” (Dub Mix) featuring Ari Lennox.

 

In spring 2020, “Slow Down,” with over 170 million global streams, became the quickest and biggest-streaming song in Marley family history, and elevated Skip to over 380 million total global artist streams.  It was the first time a Jamaican-born artist reached the #1 spot on the Billboard Adult R&B chart.  At the same time, Skip became the first Jamaican-born artist inside the Top 15 on Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart in nearly a decade and a half (since Sean Paul and Keyshia Cole in 2006 with “When You Gonna Give It Up to Me”). The track spent 3 weeks at #1 at R&B Radio. Over the course of 2020, amazing chemistry radiated between Skip and two-time Grammy©-winner H.E.R. performing “Slow Down” live together.  The song’s television debut on Fallon and show-stopping perform­ance at the NAACP Image Awards (where he was nominated for “Outstanding New Artist”) both took place in February, followed in June by the ABC Good Morning America Summer Concert Series session. At the same time, Skip won critical acclaim from Rolling Stone, Fader, Hypebeast, Vibe, Billboard, Complex, Essence, Teen Vogue, and others.

 

During the lockdown, he performed for the launch of the Essence Music Monday series, Billboard LiveGlobal Citizen & World Health Organization, and Univision’s 17th Annual Premios Juventud Latin youth awards (sharing the stage for the opening performance with the Wailers, Cedella Marley, Pedró Capó, Rauw Alejandro, Camilo and Kany García). Skip he been nominated for two Soul Train Music Awards, an NAACP Image award, and Best New Artist at the iHeart Music Awards. Skip also released a 25-minute Skip Marley documentary film Let’s Take it Higher which premiered at VIBE.com two days before the Grammy© Awards broadcast.  The doc, whose production began on the fateful day of January 6, 2021, includes family movies from Skip’s childhood, and candid interviews with his HIGHER PLACE collaborators H.E.R., Damian “Jr Gong” Marley, Rick Ross, and D. Smoke.  There are special appearances by Skip’s mother Cedella Marley, and by his aunt Marcia Griffiths – she toured the world with Bob Marley as a member of his backing trio the I Three with Skip’s grandmother, the legendary Rita Marley.

See More Performers For KYS FEST 2021 HERE