Julian “JuJu” Marley has released Colors of Royal, a joint album with producer Alexx Antaeus, on Friday, March 24, 2023, via Monom Records and Digital Minds. The eight-song set — six new tracks and two remixes — is being pitched as “an exciting departure from Julian Marley’s previous roots in reggae albums,” the Gleaner reports; Apple Music files it under modern dancehall and sums it up as “reggae royalty meets lush, electronic dancehall production.”

All eight tracks are in the JamaicansMusic library: press Play all above to hear the album while you read, open the Colors of Royal album page, or jump to the track-by-track player below.

Paying respect to the teachers

The anchor is “The Tide Is High,” a rework of the John Holt classic, with a video shot at Devon House — the Kingston mansion built by George Stiebel, Jamaica’s first Black millionaire. “The whole vibe behind that song was just a feel-free vibe,” Marley told the Gleaner. “It was brought to me by Alexx Antaeus, who is the producer of the project. We did it off a fun vibe. We love the song and we love the artiste and we seh, mek we pay some respect to our teachers and put out Tide is High.”

Antaeus — whose credits the paper lists as running from Earth, Wind & Fire and the Rolling Stones to Jah Vinci and Yaksta — produced the project, with NotNice, Mr Sonic, Sean Alaric and Prince Productions also contributing. A remix competition for “The Tide Is High” drew 247 entries from 117 countries; the winning Latin/dembow version by El Pentagono and Norris Webb of the Dominican Republic closes the album as track eight. A video for “Inna Mood,” filmed at Wickie Wackie Beach, also premieres today. “It’s about love and the confidence that she will be my baby,” Marley said of the song.

It follows the twice Grammy-nominated singer’s As I Am (2019), which featured Beenie Man, Spragga Benz, Shaggy and Addis Pablo.

Tracklist

Each title links to the song page in our library, where you can play it, queue it and find the official upload.

  1. Jah Sees Them
  2. Robbed (feat. Notnice)
  3. Inna Mood
  4. Made for Your Love
  5. Roll
  6. The Tide Is High
  7. Roll (Rodando Mr Sonic Remix) (feat. Bahiano)
  8. The Tide Is High (Pentagono Remix) (feat. Melo El Melodico)

Editor’s note: Colors of Royal went on to win Best Reggae Album at the 66th Grammy Awards in February 2024 (Recording Academy); see our report.

Listen and dig deeper

  • Play the full album on the Colors of Royal album page. “Inna Mood,” “Made for Your Love,” “Roll” and both remixes are the official music videos from Antaeus’s channel, and “The Tide Is High” the official video from Julian Marley’s channel, with the album audio attached as alternates; “Jah Sees Them” and “Robbed” have no official-channel studio upload, so the library uses the label-provided audio from YouTube’s Julian Marley – Topic release.
  • Browse the Julian Marley artist profile, including Awake and A Time and Place in the library.

Sources: Jamaica Gleaner — “Julian Marley pushes the envelope with ‘Colors of Royal’” (Yasmine Peru, Mar 24, 2023); Apple Music — Colors Of Royal (release date, label, tracklist).

Editor’s note: This story is part of an archive backfill covering Jamaican music news from 2022 to 2026. It is dated to the events it reports.