framed album covers and photographs hang on
every available wall inside; there’s an office for
his wife, Rita, who turns 74 this year, and her
foundation, outside of which is a pop-up cloth-
ing drive; dozens of license plates collectively
spell out the lyrics to “One Love.” Deep in a back
room of the studio lives Chow, the eccentric yet
sprightly Chinese-Jamaican philosopher-care-
taker who has been running Bob’s studio since
the ’ 70 s and now lives somewhere in its recesses,
with the blessing of the family. (“I’m just a survi-
vor, you know?” says Chow, when asked about his
role in the operation. “Eat the food, do the thing,
tomorrow’s another day, right?”)
The studio itself, with its expansive live room,
has been the main one for several records by Bob’s
children — Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers,
Damian Marley, Julian Marley, Stephen Marley —
as well as Gentleman’s Journey to Jah and Lauryn
Hill’s remix of Bob’s “Turn On Your Love Light.”
(Hill and Rohan have five children together.)
When JAY-Z included the song “Bam” (featur-
ing Damian) on his 2017 album, 4 : 44 , the family
cranked up the old machines to produce 15 copies
of the record for Jay, all stamped with the iconic
red-and-yellow Tuff Gong label.
Amid a resurgence in the popularity of vi-
nyl — in December, sales topped 1 million in a
single week in the United States for the first time
since Nielsen Music began tracking them in 1991 ,
contributing to the highest yearly sales total ever
— and with an eye toward helping local Jamaican
artists produce and press their own work, Tuff
Gong plans to begin pressing records once again
this summer. The plant will have an annual capac-
ity of 250 , 000 units, and a series of limited-edition
pressings of Marley classics — with that coveted
Tuff Gong stamp — will be formally announced
later this year. Since imported records can cost $ 35
in Jamaica, the only way for local artists to make
vinyl a business is to press it locally, and Tuff Gong
wants to give them a way to do it.
“We know the vision that our father had with
opening Tuff Gong was a way to give the less for-
tunate an opportunity to be heard,” says Ky-Mani
Marley, 44. “It’s important that we continue to
build on that legacy and message.”
The next day — as they do every year on Feb. 6 —
thousands congregate at 56 Hope Road for a special
concert to celebrate that legacy on what would have
been Bob’s birthday; and every year Donisha Prend-
ergast is on hand to officially welcome the commu-
nity on the family’s behalf. An activist, filmmaker,
writer and the eldest of Bob and Rita’s grandchil-
dren — her mother, Sharon Marley Prendergast,
was Rita’s daughter from a previous relationship,
who was adopted by Bob after their marriage — she
always finds time to make it down for the event,
even as she finishes her film studies at Ryerson
University in Toronto.
“Bob Marley doesn’t stand alone — he represents
many souls and spirits who have been trying to find
their way to a safe space,” she says, sitting in the
front room of the Bob Marley Museum as the wallsDamian Marley
photographed Feb. 6
at the Bob Marley
Museum in Kingston.38 BILLBOARD • APRIL 25 , 20208fea_coverstory_marleys_lo [P]_27879288.indd 38 4/22/20 3:33 PM