I ❤️ Reggae

Why I love reggae music.

Greetings Superstars!

Since you’re reading this, I assume you love reggae music and I’m curious about why —where did you first hear it? Did you grow up with it or discover it yourself? How does it make you feel?

I remember being about three years old on St. Croix. “96° In The Shade” by Third World illustrated our life under the blazing sun, and Exodus by Bob Marley & The Wailers was constantly spinning on my mother’s record player.

I remember picking melted candle wax off of the table, listening to frogs croaking out the evening’s news, cement floors, coverlets from Peru, hurricane lanterns, exhaustive recitations of Masefield’s “Sea Fever,” and “Waiting in Vain” filling the room despite the album being warped from the heat and salt air.

Kids like me knew the melancholy of being from the Caribbean—trapped in a place full of colonial ghosts and forever at the mercy of the weather. Marley’s voice was always the balm that soothed the sunburn and the cold drink that quenched the wanderlust.

Reggae music allows my body to relax in a singular way that is only matched when I approach and glimpse St. Croix from the sea or air. It’s that emotional connection to the idea of ‘home.’ Stateside friends have told me that they discovered reggae in college and felt a connection to the peaceful vibes—or moved by the ideas in the lyrics.

How about you? Please share what reggae music means to you.

This week, I hope you rediscover music from your childhood that informed who you are today and it makes you smile.