Damian Robert Nesta Marley, also known around the world as “Junior Gong” and more recently as “Gongzilla” was born in 1978 to parents Bob Marley and Cindy Breakspeare, Miss World 1976.  As a young adult, he developed a passion and a gift to speak for those who cannot always speak for themselves. A self-proclaimed ‘Spiritual Revolutionary’, Damian has worked assiduously to carve his own niche in music history and to add a new perspective to the Marley legacy for the 21st century. 

At the age of 13, Damian began performing in a group called “The Shepherds” which comprised of Shiah Coore (son of Third World guitarist Cat Coore) and currently a member of his band, and Yashema Beth McGreggor, daughter of reggae singers Freddie Mcgreggor and Judy Mowatt and then began touring with his brothers, Stephen, Ky-mani, Julian and Ziggy. 

By 1996, Damian had already made his stamp as a different kind of Marley when he released his first solo album “Mr. Marley”, a heavily dancehall-influenced album produced by his brother Stephen Marley.  His second album “Halfway Tree” was released in 2001 by a major record label and showcased Damian’s unique gift for blending dancehall, reggae and hip-hop styles.  This album won Damian much recognition and remained on the Billboard Top Reggae Album Charts for 158 weeks and earned him his first Grammy for Best Reggae Album in 2002. 
While honored by this recognition by the global music fraternity, Damian continued to work in the studio, laying the groundwork for the tracks that would become his highly anticipated album, “Welcome To Jamrock”. The lyrics in this album presented Marley as a true spiritual revolutionary, as he used his talent to evoke a spiritual change while trying to enforce a better way of thinking.  He is described as “rhyming with the conviction of a street preacher with the intellect of a university economist”.  

Damian’s hit single “Welcome to Jamrock” was listed as one of the Top 100 Songs of the Decade by Rolling Stone, and at the 2006 Grammy Awards, he won Best Reggae Album and Best Urban/Alternative Performance for Welcome to Jamrock. Damian is the only Jamaican reggae artist in history to win two Grammy Awards on the same night. He is also the only reggae artist to win in the Best Urban/Alternative Performance category at the Grammy Awards. The New York Times called Welcome to Jamrock the “best reggae song of the decade.” 
Welcome to Jamrock led the pathway to Damian’s critically acclaimed collaboration with Nas for 2010’s much lauded album “Distant Relatives” – a project which explored the relationships between reggae, hip-hop and Africa. The album title refers not only to the bond between the artists, but the connection to their African ancestry, which inspired the album both musically and lyrically. USA Today referred to the album as a “potent and often provocative collaboration” and by Rolling Stone as “an Afrocentric winner.” The album debuted at Number 5 on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart and Number 1 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, Rap Albums and Reggae Albums charts, with Billboard heralding the album as “a dynamic hybrid.”    

The Distant Relatives Tour kicked off in 2011 and saw Damian traveling and performing for thousands of fans all over the world, including South America, Europe, The United Kingdom, The Caribbean and North America.  

Damian continued to cross musical boundaries in 2012, as he went on to partner with Skrillex for their groundbreaking track “Make It Bun Dem”, which Rolling Stone called “a monster mash up of dubstep and dancehall” and has led to several remixes of the original version.  Damian recently released two other singles; “Set Up Shop” and  “Affairs of the Heart” which both received widespread airplay. 

Damian continues to tour with his band all over the world as a way of entertaining and healing as he continues to spread the message for those whose voices cannot be heard. He is working with his brothers Stephen and Julian under their Ghetto Youths International Label, to discover, develop and sign gifted artistes by applying their musical talent and vast experience to create new and different styles of music.  

Damian is currently in the studio working on his upcoming solo album.

DJs that are also producers. Now there's a line rarer than you might think in hip hop, both in and out of Portugal. Jazzy Jeff is one of the first serious references for that. And then there's the unbeatable DJ Premier. Or DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist. But most of them devote themselves exclusively to one or the other art. Kanye is seen mainly as a producer, as Mixmaster Mike is seen first of all as a DJ as the Beastie Boys will gladly confirm. GI Joe is DJ. And Sickonce is producer. Except that, unlike the other examples, GI Joe and Sickonce are also one and the same person.
Rafael Correia is the name behind the alter-egos, an architect by profession and arch-enemy of the music without groove, without punch or sharp kick and snare drums. This native of Portimão has been an early - late 90s! - active member of the singular hip hop scene in Algarve, with a curriculum that extends from Twism to Tribruto, and this just to name projects his been involved with at the most southern region of the country.
As a DJ, however, GI Joe has not been limited to scratching for others - besides the ones mentioned, we  can also find his precise cuts with a great flow in Royalistick and Reflect albums, for example - but he is also known to give extra work to clubs’ sound systems  all over the country. In the dj booth, the work of GI Joe is equally eclectic, always looking for the latest 'banger' able to stir crowds with an open style where hip hop meets dubstep, and where good taste reigns forever. Clear example: the duo Bass Avenue that he shares with Kombo and who explore the lowest spectrum of frequencies thought to the clubs.
On the reverse of this medal is working as Sickonce. Obviously, each influences the other facets: when the eyes see the dance floor almost always conclude what works, what bass lines do move the bodies, which sounds awaken the best reactions in people. And this privileged vantage point of the DJ is then transported to the studio where all these findings are put into operation. Sickonce produces beats that are unique, powerful, with a careful sound and wide open views. The latest example is his extremely well taken care of production work on the album Deep: her, a project that he keeps with emmy Curl and which has just premiered in album format. But Sickonce has a wider discography, including the mega-project Palavra de Músico, which ventured into the production of more than fifty tracks with various guests. A milestone for the 'do it yourself' spirit in national hip hop.
GI Joe and Sickonce, incidentally, are two identities associated with one of the most active cells of hip hop in Algarve and nationally, Kimahera, house of ambitious projects, with a particular  identity that counts several years of existence and that has done much to keep hip hop music on the map nationally. Rafael is one of minds behind Kimahera.
In common, GI Joe, Sickonce and, why not?, Architect Rafael Correa have a passion for solid and fluid building, be that a set grounded in classics but with a distinctly modern touch, beats that are underpinned by a strong rhythmic foundation, or buildings of brick and cement built to last generations. That’s the only way to build the future. That of music and that of the country.

Booking Rafael Correia
(+351) 936 435 883
(+351) 917 134 221
gijoe@kimahera.pt

Filho da década de 80.
Protótipo da geração perfeita, predestinada a grandes feitos.
Por um lado, a possibilidade de ser incrível. Por outro, ser mais uma alma por onde os anos passam, simplesmente.
Por algum motivo nasci, cresci. Mas agora não me vou limitar a viver à espera da morte. A vida é uma saga, composta pela típica trilogia, mas acredito que seja muito mais do que isso. É a oportuindade que temos de sermos nós próprios, ao estilo de um Tarantino, porque somos OS argumentistas, OS encenadores, OS directores de fotografia, OS realizadores, AS PERSONAGENS! Desde o figurante ao actor principal. Agora, escolhe a tua posição.
Desde 2005 nesta Atmosfera Hostil, muitas Carapuças serviram através de espalhar a minha Palavra de Músico como se fosse este o meu Último Acto. Mas não, o Konhecimento Reina Supremo e o caminho para encontrá-lo é infinito. E eu vou espalhando o meu "conTribruto", sozinho ou acompanhado.
Eu escolhi o meu papel, escolhi as minhas personagens, escolhi o meu enredo, o meu pathos. Sou um observador, escritor de relatos, bon vivant.
Não sou mais um, sou apenas E.U.

https://www.instagram.com/emmycurl/
buy my music at: http://emmycurlmusic.bandcamp.com

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