Alex Marley sings for homeless children
Independent reggae recording artiste, Alex Marley, whose music is a mix of reggae-dancehall with a fusion of rap styles and chanting, is promoting the ‘Rebellious’ EP. It only has five tracks but one that stands out the most, firstly for its title, Homeless Children.
Marley told THE WEEKEND STAR that he recognised that of late there are not many songs that speak for the homeless, especially the youth.
“Nobody does or wants to do music for homeless people. I was trying to do the song with someone prior to working on the EP and they outrightly said no because of the context. It was then that I felt even stronger in my conviction to do it and rushed to record it so it could be on the album,” Marley said.
BECOMING HOMELESS
Part of the song goes, ‘They walk the street, no shoes on their feet. No water to drink, no food to eat. Mr business man how do you feel complete. Mi wonder late ah night if you mind mek you sleep or do you stay up all night thinking about the homeless on the street. It’s not about me, a fi di homeless mi dweet.’
“We need more programmes to prevent people from becoming homeless,” he said. “It’s not that the opportunity cannot be presented but sometimes it is being intentionally withheld from an entire generation of youth, who want to flourish but don’t have the opportunity or because of a perception.”
Due to the slow tempo supporting the lyrics, Homeless Children may not make you dance. It is somewhat more of spoken art or a conversation between Marley and the listener.
“I don’t think when a person is say 99 years old that he or she wants to just say how much money they made, but how much of an impact they had and that’s what I want,” he added.