Bob Marley your conscience, show up yourself clear, because herb make you meditate. Is only a natural t'ing and it grow like a tree." Marley saw marijuana usage as a vital factor in religious growth and connection with Jah, and as a way to philosophise and become wiser. Bob Marley Robert Nesta Marley, OM (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981) was a Jamaican singer-songwriter who became an international musical and cultural icon, blending mostly reggae, ska, and rocksteady in his compositions. He started in 1963 with the group the Wailers and forged a distinctive songwriting and vocal style that became popular
Reggae genres and reggae. Many of ska's popular acts such as Desmond Dekker & the Aces, Bob Marley and the Wailers, the Skatalites, Toots & the Maytals, Byron Lee & the Dragonaires, and the Melodians, later became associated with reggae. In 1966, many ska musicians began to favour slower rhythms and beats, and the form began to evolve into rocksteady. A successor of ska and a precursor to reggae, rocksteady was performed by Jamaican vocal harmony groups such as the Gaylads, Toots & the Maytals, the Heptones and the Paragons. The "early reggae" era can be traced as starting in roughly 1968.