Updating

The album that transformed the reggae singer into an icon

Bob Marley’s 1976 album Rastaman Vibration marks the moment when the Jamaican singer transformed from an emerging reggae star into an international pop icon, creating a world-conquering sound out of the three elements he namechecks on the album’s second song: “Roots, Rock, Reggae.” Marley’s mastery is untouchable on keening, lovestruck ballads like “Cry to Me” and gritty, urban tales like “Johnny Was”; he even finds a way to incorporate a Haile Selassie speech into a slinking, intense riddim on “War.”

© Apple Music
-1