Damian Marley

He is the only child born to Marley and Cindy Breakspeare, a Jamaican jazz singer and crowned Miss World 1976.

Like several of Bob Marley's children, Damian was born out of wedlock and outside of Bob's marriage to singer Rita Marley.

After seeing the movie Damien: Omen II, which is about the coming of the Antichrist, one of Bob's last requests in Germany was to have Damian's name changed.

"Damien being a devil...It was inappropriate for him as a Rastafarian to have a child with that name," Bob Said and Damian's name was later changed.

Damian was two years old when his father died.

His nickname "Junior Gong" is derived from his father's nickname of "Tuff Gong".

At the age of 13, Marley formed a musical group by the name of the Shephards, which included the daughter of Freddie McGregor and son of Third World's Cat Coore.

Damian Robert Nesta "Jr. Gong" Marley (born 21 July 1978) is a Jamaican DJ, singer, lyricist and rapper.

He is the recipient of four Grammy Awards.

Damian Marley is the second to youngest child of reggae musician Bob Marley.

The band fell apart in the early 1990s, and Damian started his solo career.

The group opened the 1992 Reggae Sunsplash festival.

With the backing of his father's label, Tuff Gong, he released his 1996 debut album Mr. Marley, which surprised many who were unaccustomed to hearing a Marley deejaying rather than singing.

Marley released his second studio album Halfway Tree.

The name "Halfway Tree" comes from his mother Cindy Breakspeare being from the rich part of town, and his father Bob Marley coming from the poor part of town, thus him being "a tree halfway in between the 'rich' world and 'poor' world."

Additionally, Halfway Tree is a well-known landmark that marks the cultural center of Half-Way-Tree, the clock tower that stands where the historical eponymous cotton tree once stood is featured prominently behind Marley on the cover of the album.

The album was released on 11 September 2001 and received the 2002 Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album.

It was co-produced by Damian Marley and his brother Stephen Marley, who had also produced Damian's debut album Mr. Marley.

Marley released his third studio album Welcome to Jamrock which was released on 12 September 2005 in the United States and 13 September 2005 in the United Kingdom.

The album sold 86,000 copies in its first week of release, and was eventually certified gold after selling 500,000 copies in the United States.

Damian's half-brother, Stephen Marley, was a producer and co-writer of the hugely successful song of the same name.

The lyrics to the single "Welcome to Jamrock", which was performed over a riddim produced by Sly and Robbie for Ini Kamoze some 20 years earlier, centered around poverty, politics and crime in Jamaica.

While the single was controversial at home over its perceived negative viewpoint of the island, many praised the content of the song.

Dr Clinton Hutton, professor at the University of the West Indies, said of the single: "'Jamrock' uses the icon of the inner city, of alienation, of despair, of prejudice, but of hope, of Jamaican identity, to remind us of the fire of frustration, the fire of creativity, the fire of warning to open up our eyes and look within to the life we are living. And still some of us don't want to hear and to look and say enough is enough."

The single reached number 13 on the UK Singles Chart and number 55 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.

It was also number 100 on the Top 100 Songs of the Decade listing by Rolling Stone.

Other notable singles from the album include "The Master Has Come Back", "Road to Zion" featuring Nas, and "Khaki Suit" featuring Bounty Killer and Eek-A-Mouse.

At the 2006 Grammy Awards, he won Best Reggae Album and Best Urban/Alternative Performance for Welcome to Jamrock.

He 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.

In 2008, he made an appearance on singer Mariah Carey's E=MC² album as a featured artist on the album track "Cruise Control".

At the 2009 Grammy Awards news of a collaborative album between Marley and Nas was announced, when Nas told MTV reporters "Right now, I'll tell you first, I'm working on an album with Damian Marley. We tryin' to build some schools in Africa with this one, and trying to build empowerment. We're tryin' to show love and stuff with this album. So, the record's ... all about really the 'hood and Africa also as well."

On 17 May 2010, Marley released Distant Relatives, a collaborative album with Nas.

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.

They have previously collaborated on "Road to Zion", on Marley's Welcome to Jamrock album.

The album joins two different flavours of music with Marley's dub-rock aesthetic and Nas' flow.

Damian and Stephen produced much of the album.

The proceeds of this album will go to building schools in the Congo.

The album debuted at number five on the US Billboard 200 chart with first-week sales of 57,000 copies.

It serves as Nas's tenth top-ten album and Marley's second top-ten album in the United States.