"Welcome to Jamrock" is a song by Jamaican reggae artist Damian Marley. It was released in March 2005 as the lead single from his album of the same name. The song was listed at number 270 on Pitchfork Media's "Top 500 songs of the 2000s". The song is featured in FIFA 06, ' and ' where it is recorded in the game's fictional Simlish language.
Background
The song covers issues such as crime, poverty and political corruption as part of the harsh reality of "Jamrock", Marley's personification of Jamaica, as opposed to the Jamaica advertised as a popular tourist destination. Marley laments Jamaica's high crime rate and unceasing violence, demanding that those in charge do something about it. In this sense he carries on the legacy of his father before him, in inspiring Jamaicans to stand together. Both the rhythm and the hook are sampled from the 1984 track "World-A-Music" by Ini Kamoze - the original rhythm from the Ini Kamoze album was provided by Sly and Robbie.
"Welcome to Jamrock" was recorded by American recording artist Alicia Keys for her first live albumUnplugged. Entitled "Love it or Leave it Alone/Welcome to Jamrock", Keys recorded the song as part of a medley, which appears as the last track of the album. "Love It or Leave It Alone" features hip hoprecording artistsCommon and Mos Def and "Welcome to Jamrock" features Damian Marley. Additionally, "Love It or Leave It Alone" contains a sample of "Love Me or Leave Me Alone" by Brand Nubian, written by Lorenzo DeChalus, Derek Murphy and Charles Davis and "Latoya" by Just-Ice, written by Kirk Khaleel and Joseph Williams. On working with Alicia Keys on Unplugged, Damian Marley said that "I’m a fan of her music. What I really appreciate about her music is the whole live aspect. She’s very hands-on and musical. Reggae musicians appreciate that because we use more live instrumentation". The song was generally well received by music critics in their reviews for Unplugged. Matilda Egere-Cooper from BBC Music called it the "grand finale" of the album while Anthony Carew from Neumu called it a "jamboree finale". Robert Hilburn from Los Angeles Times felt that Keys gave a "vigorous rendition" of the song. According to Roberta Penn of Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the "closing medley of "Love It or Leave It Alone" and "Welcome to Jamrock is a fabulous love fest". Thomas Inskeep from Stylus Magazine described it as a "big hip-hop jam", but was not pleased with the song, writing "Clearly, Keys is trying to lighten up with this, but it comes off as basically a “Look at my cool celebrity friends!” move. Musically uninspiring, this medley feels and sounds tacked-on". Writing for Entertainment Weekly, David Browne simply commented that "a left-field cameo by Damian Marley on a cover of his hit ”Welcome to Jamrock” just feels opportunistic". Rolling Stone reviewer Christian Hoard felt that with the multiple guest artists on the song, Keys "is sort of like trying to spice up a cocktail party by trotting out Noam Chomsky".
