Our new album, "Recover" OUT NOW: https://TNAF.lnk.to/recover

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.

Radiolab is a show about curiosity. Hosts Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich use state-of-the-art sound design, mind-bending story-telling, and a sense of humor to ask big questions and blur the boundaries between science, philosophy, and human experience. Radiolab is produced in New York at WNYC, and heard on over 300 public radio stations across the country.

The NYC Nomad is a project in which I live in a different neighborhood, with different people, every week.  I have lived in over 40 neighborhoods in the five boroughs of NYC.

Recently, I teamed up with the great people at SoundCloud to document my project with audio stories.  Each week I search for an interview "the most interesting person in the neighborhood."

You can find the neighborhood stories here, or better yet submit your own that I will feature on my blog and on a map.

The Stack Overflow podcast is a weekly conversation about working in software development, learning to code, and the art and culture of computer programming. Hosted by Sara Chipps, Paul Ford, and Ben Popper, the series will feature questions from our community, interviews with fascinating guests, and hot takes on what’s happening in tech.

Half Japanese, half Indian, French Canadian, identical twin sisters Miki and Radha Agrawal, under the DJ moniker Me2Me2, bring a vibrant sound they call "Open House", with bright, colorful deep house beats mixed with songs you know and love. 

The twins have been polymaths for almost two decades with projects ranging from restaurants (Miki opened WILD, the first gluten-free pizza concept with locations in New York City and Las Vegas), industry disrupting innovative products (they founded THINX, the period proof underwear brand and Miki founded TUSHY, the modern bidet brand), and communities (Radha started Daybreaker, a popular underground morning dance party that launched in NYC and has expanded to cities across the country and around the world including London, Tel Aviv, Cape Town, San Francisco and Los Angeles.) 

Miki has written two best-selling books, "Do Cool Shit" and “Disrupt-her” and Radha has written the best-selling book, “Belong”.

alt-J are Joe Newman, Gus Unger-Hamilton and Thom Green. They returned in 2022 with their latest album, The Dream.  

alt-J are one of the most successful British bands of the millennium. Their 2012 Mercury Prize and Ivor Novello Award-winning debut An Awesome Wave, was followed two years later by their number one, GRAMMY and BRIT Award-nominated album This Is All Yours. Released in 2017, RELAXER flew straight into the top 10 of the UK album chart ahead of a summer of major international shows - including a headline show at London’s O2 Arena and headline performances at numerous festivals - and became their second album to be nominated for the Mercury Prize.

To truly understand the quiet phenomenon that are Romans, one listen to their music will explain everything. Romans dip their toes into several of rock n' roll's most pristine ponds, is a refreshing departure from today's plastic wrapped, industry made, music money makers. Helmed by Jeremy Fury (singer for Ohio-based band We Are The Fury) and supported by Craig Bonich (guitarist of Head Automatica and Jaguar Love), Romans strives for timeless, not temporary, firmly steeping themselves in the classic composure of music's most prolific songwriters.

"I remember Craig and I finished off a couple bottles of wine and were doing a taped interview for a popular online music site," he remembers. "I thought, 'Man we should start a band together someday,' A few years later, here we are. I envisioned this project to encompass the best parts of rock n' roll nostalgia incorporating everything from 50's doo wop, 60's brit rock, and 70's glam."

Romans are like tasting the rainbow of classic rock with a modern twist. Infused with the unique rawness of a Stones-esque boogie in "All The Glitters Gone" to the delicate lacing of Roy Orbison nostalgia in "Somedays" there's no denying the catalog of songs has swagger as demonstrated in the nod to T-Rex in "Us Being Young" and "Our Love" acknowledging the Ziggy Stardust era Bowie.

With tracks produced by L.A. based noise-smith Manny Nieto (The Breeders, Rumspringa, Health), Rick Parker (Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, The Von Bondies, Good Old War), and Tony Visconti protege Mario McNulty (Bowie, Lou Reed), Romans have a great deal to be excited about. Over the past few months the band have shared the stage with The Detroit Cobras, Electric Six, D Generation, and Foxy Shazam. Most recently, the band's single "Let's Get It On" was placed in the latest Royal Caribbean TV commercial in the U.K. and Ireland. 

So, is rock n' roll dead? Definitely not. And Romans are on a mission to make sure that doesn't change. No matter how music trends ebb and flow, the one time tested certainty is people will always want songs to connect with and Romans deliver by doing it their way and having more fun than anyone else.

We've been keeping track of new music on the internet since 2005. 

We repost tracks that enter the top 5 in our popular chart. See http://hypem.com/popular for the full chart.

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