What is Zuri Marley, musician and granddaughter of Bob Marley, doing for 4/20? For one, sheâs not lighting up: weed makes her feel crazy, though she is careful to clarify that everyone has their own experience with the za. âItâs a beautiful thing,â she says of the spiritual feelings weed can engender, âbut Iâll jump off something if Iâm smoking.â Zuriâs principle of honoring the nuances and contradictions things, and people, can harbor, is a quality I notice again and again in our conversation.
Her feature on Blood Orangeâs âLove Yaâ leans into his heritage and touches on hers, with a spoken segment on the war in Sierra Leone. Yet her solo work is totally electro-pop, and sheâs a DJ by trade. There again, she has lately been playing and listening to a lot of Jamaican music. She plans to bring a bit of Jamaica into the next song she makes, but in unexpected ways. âIn a reggaeton way?â I ask. âNo,â she says mysteriously. âIn a way thatâs so personal youâd only pick it up if you were Jamaican.â
Music is a form of love and bonding in her family, which recently suffered the death of her cousin. âWeâd just be together every night around the campfire, using music to heal,â she tells me. Her grandfatherâs music is also a source of connection for her. âIf Iâm around my family, I naturally connect with him,â she adds.
Does Bob Marley hold a privileged position in the family because of who he is, or he is simply âGranddad Bobâ? The answer is that heâs definitely special. âWe were all so impacted by him because of how important his music and his message were for the world,â she says. âWhat he was able to achieve, how many people he was able to reach, you canât ignore that.â
Another thing heâs passed down into the family is his rhythmâ not just musical, but a manner of moving through the world and existence. âWhen [the family] is all together, you can really see we have a certain way of being in a way of communicating that is unique,â she says. Her grandmother Rita is an accomplished music artist too, and the matriarch of the family.
Jamaica is where her family and closest friends live, and is where she eats an astonishing number of patties, which she sadly has not (successfully) replicated in her current LA kitchen. Before LA, she had moved to NYC to attend NYU, but her real goal was running into RuPaul. She wanted to move closer to queer and trans culture, because while homophobia is deeply rooted in Jamaica, Zuri jokingly says sheâs âso queer, itâs not even funny.â She was able to exist without disturbance.
Jamaica has slowly become more accepting, with pride parades coming into the mainstream there, but being LGBTQ+ is still not the norm. Still, she seems confident that change is coming: âOne of my uncles says that the only constant is change. Things will definitely change in some way, because you canât keep people down.â
For herself, acceptance comes naturally. âI have always accepted myself. I guess Iâm lucky that way,â she says matter-of-factly. âYou can maybe try to change yourself tomorrow, but for now, youâre going to be who you are. So you might as well accept it.â As in the case of queer culture, Zuri has always dabbled in subjects outside Jamaican culture, including an early obsession with. âMy whole M.O. in life is to blend all these seemingly disparate parts of myself into one, accept that, and then force everyone else to accept it,â she says.
So what is she doing on 4/20? âIâm DJing with my cousin at Woody Harrelsonâs dispensary!â she says. There, she will be on the hunt for some kush candles, or CBD lip balmâ a nice balance of drugs and wellness.