Drama Around Marley Son Memoir, 'Dear Dad'

The 10th child of music legend

Bob Marley is embroiled in a fiery debate with a Las Vegas-based publisher over alleged unauthorized changes to the cover and title of his recently released memoir which threatens to taint the near-perfect image of reggae music royalty, the Marleys.

Ky-Mani Marley, a Grammy Award-nominated reggae and hip-hop artist, penned "Dear Dad: Where's the family in our family, today?'' which was released this month by Farrah Gray Publishing in celebration of Marley's 65th birthday.

The issue between author and publisher lies mainly in the extra coverline: "The Story The Marley Family Apparently Doesn't Want You To Know.''

In an online statement, Ky-Mani says the caption is unauthorized: "I did NOT authorize him to make any changes to the cover of my book, nor do I condone any of the captions he has written!''

Further, Ky-Mani told The Gleaner, a Jamaican newspaper, that he was considering legal action against the Gray, saying he simply wanted to tell his story without causing any conflict. He told the newspaper the title was changed from "Dear Dad: The Marley Son Who Persevered From The Streets To Prominence."

But Dr. Farrah Gray, the publisher, stands by the book, saying he worked with Marley every step of the way. He said that Marley wrote the book using a ghostwriter and the interviews were recorded.

"I didn't write his book,'' Gray told BV on Books. "I published it. He did the final edit. Now he's issuing a statement that he didn't approve it...for those of us who believe in one love, Ky-Mani Marley's story deserves light. He's throwing me under the bus and going on a smear campaign, but I have the tapes. The tapes are worse and he doesn't want those publicized.''

Beyond the controversy, "Dear Dad'' is an absorbing read. It lays bare some long hidden family secrets. Ky-Mani writes that after his father's untimely death in 1981, he grew up outside the realm of his father's prestigious roots, and all the wealth, and comfort it had to offer.

Instead, born out of wedlock to Marley and Anita Belnavis, a table tennis champion, he writes that he grew up in abject poverty in Jamaica and then on the hardscrabble streets of Miami's Liberty City, where he hustled crack. They later moved to a south Miami suburb so he could escape the drugs, but he ended up fighting his way through school.

He goes on to paint an unflattering portrait of the family, especially Rita Marley, the matriarch, who according to the book, proclaimed on the day of Bob Marley's untimely death from cancer: " 'All of Bob's dutty baby's mothers and bastard children will suffer'...And so it was.''

Ky-Mani is the 10th of Bob Marley's 11 children, according to the official Marley Web site. Not all of them have the same mothers.

"It didn't matter who my father was. I grew up in the trap, the ghetto. I'm just like the millions who are out there right now. I wanted to live. Survive. Just like you would if you were there. Survival is the instinct of life itself, and like I said before, if it meant selling all the ...drugs in America, that's exactly what I would have done to make it out. That was my clear perspective about it. End of story.''

Additionally, Ky-Mani writes that after he turned 18, he was forced to decide between taking a lump sum payment from the Marley estate and risk not being "part of the estate,'' or reinvest the payment. He took the lump sum to the consternation of some family members, prompting some to stop speaking to him for a time, he writes. The Marley estate is expected to generate worldwide annual sales in excess of $1 billion by 2012, according to Fortune Magazine.

But through the pain, there was love, he writes, the kind his father inculcates through his music even today. Marley's music remains popular.

"I love my Marley family,'' Ky-Mani writes. "Period. I love them. I love both of my families, every last member. Love them. I'm the type of man who reserves his deepest love and loyalty for family.''

Gray adds that Ky-Mani's positive energy and survival instinct are what inspired him to publish "Dear Dad.''

"The reason I decided to published it is that I hope it will provide people with a pivotal moment to change their lives,'' Gray said. "He may have been born with the last name, but that did not guarantee privilege. His story should inspire others. If he can survive the streets, and the harsh realities that he talks about throughout the book, it is possible to survive what you go through. You also get the truth about some very controversial things.

"The part that inspires me most is that he lived the life that his father sings about and the people he used to sing to, the forgotten, the rejected, the neglected, the downtrodden and disadvantaged.''