Damian "Junior Gong" Marley is still feeling the effects of his double Grammy win on Wednesday when he made history by winning in the categories of Best Reggae Album for 'Welcome To Jamrock' and Best Urban/Alternative Performance for the title track.
By Teino EvansAccording to Jr. Gong in an interview with THE WEEKENED STAR last night, the feeling of what he has accomplished is overwhelming but he is still working at doing much more.
Jr. Gong had always been confident of a win in his categories. He said: "As mi always seh, is a one in five chance fi win once yuh nominated an mi did always know seh mi stand a good chance especially wid the album doing well."
The son of reggae legend Bob Marley said that the feeling he had with his recent win was different from that of the first.
"I waan tell you seh dis one is history for our genre of music so I feel very proud about that, the first one was like a personal accomplishment. Best Reggae Album is the one that's close to home and the heart, the other one was new grounds. One wouldn't be as nice without the other: Wi win the two of them an mek history and that's a great feeling. Even when I was receiving the award I 'livicated' it to all the elders who set the foundation for us," Jr. Gong said.
'NOTHING CAN'T CHANGE BOUT THAT'
Despite having a good album, however, there are still those in reggae circles who feel that having the name Marley is always an edge, but Jr. Gong in dispelling this said, "Put it this way, if people didn't like the music they wouldn't listen to it. The name only gives exposure. Wa mi a guh do bout dat? I'm a Marley, nothing can't change bout that."
Jr Gong's success does not end with his Grammy victory. His album was recently certified gold, selling 500,000 copies in the United States of America.
"Wi working towards more, we have a new single Beautiful with Bobby Brown and we just shot a video for it, so we hope this single can get some more sales," he told THE WEEKENED STAR.
The boundaries have even been stretched further by the artiste as his album is also in the running for popular United States- based website MSN's Artiste of the Month Award. To celebrate this year's Grammy Awards, MSN's nominees for Artist of the Month were pulled from the Grammy nominations.
