Many of us can link a certain album to pivotal moments in our lives. Whether it’s the first record you bought with your own money, the chord you first learnt to play on guitar, the song that soundtracked your first kiss, the album that got you those awkward and painful pubescent years or the one that set off light bulbs in your brain and inspired you to take a big leap of faith into the unknown – music is often the catalyst for change in our lives and can even help shape who we become.
In this series, Music Feeds asks artists to reflect on their relationship with music and share with us stories about the effect music has had on their lives.
Krown – Bob Marley’s Exodus
An album that made a change in me and still does today is Exodus by Bob Marley, released 3rd June 1977. To me, it contains 10 tracks of pure awakening. As an artist and person from a similar background as Bob Marley, this album resonates with me firstly because of its message and what it was trying to put across at the time. I find the topics he was singing about more and more relevant as time progresses.
There is the theme of salvation and providing hope to the blind which ties to the title Exodus, linking to the bible story of Moses saving his people from Egypt. “Exodus movement of Jah People” – this line wraps it up very well with Exodus representing a passing and the end times we live in.
‘Waiting In Vain’ to me says, what if all the work of revolutionaries goes down the drain just like the time Moses saw his people idol worshipping and creating false Gods (Exo 32:1-21). I sometimes ask myself if I am waiting in vain for Armageddon or am in trapped thinking too deep over some lyrics with powerful meanings; either way the record more than delivers. I was able to write ‘Trials N Tribulations’ based from a few lines off the record.
On a deeper level, I feel like I could have written this album, or this album could have been written for me. Through my music, I have the ability to help my people in Australia and throughout the Western side of world. The idea of the promise land hasn’t much promise for a man like me. I mean we are told we are free waiting for those visas to be approved then arrive to a whole different place.
The Bible’s allegory of Moses splitting seas to lead his people out of Babylon is the shoe which I am happy to wear to do God’s greater work. The young people listening to my music can see it stemming from great inspirations such as this album by a phenomenal artist like Marley.
One of the tracks from the album ‘So Much Things to Say’ plays a part in me creating ‘Let Us Live’, which is one of the tracks from my last project Hold The Flag. “They”, in my terms, referred to the news channels that were vilifying my people to create a false image of us.
“We know where we are going” – Quoting Marley is my message to anyone who loves the album. Exodus is manifesting, and I will use my music to bring promise and a spiritual lead to all the nations.
Big respects to such an album because it illuminates light on a cause that someone else was fighting for in the past: Freedom for Jah people. Just the like album speaks, it is not about black or white or race or gender, it’s a universal thing.
Sincerely, Krown.
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Krown is one of the artists featured in the Voice For Change online documentary series that spotlights musicians, artists and other rising figures within the Australian landscape each of whom share their personal journeys and the challenges they’ve faced on the way, including racism, disenfranchisement, marginalisation and social exclusion. You can watch Krown’s episode below.
Voice For Change has also just announced a new exhibition at the Immigration Museum in Melbourne, which kicks off this Saturday, coinciding with Cultural Diversity Week. The exhibition will feature an inspiring collection of stories and photographs from Australia’s top urban music, hip-hop and sporting personalities across diverse and multicultural backgrounds. See details below.
Voice For Change Exhibition
Saturday March 16 – Sunday May 19
Immigration Museum, 400 Flinders St, Melbourne VIC
Tickets: Museums Victoria
