BY KEVIN JACKSON—
Damian “Jr Gong” Marley has joined an elite pool of Jamaican artists in the platinum club. His collaboration Make it Bun Dem, with Skrillex, has been certified platinum for sales of over one million copies in the United States.
The certification was announced on August 4.
Released in May 2012, Make it Bun Dem topped the Billboard Digital Reggae Songs chart. It peaked at number 58 in the United Kingdom, 48 in Sweden, 61 in Slovakia, 15 in Belgium, and 34 in Austria.
Only five other Jamaicans have had a song certified platinum in the US, according to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). They are: Sean Paul, Shaggy, Cherine Anderson, OMI, and Ini Kamoze.
Sean Paul has two platinum singles. His 2006 hit Temperature was certified double platinum (two million copies) in December 2009. In July, Rockabye, his collaboration with Clean Bandit and Anne Marie, also went double platinum.
Michael Franti and Spearhead’s Say Hey (I Love You) featuring Anderson got double platinum status in October 2011.
OMI’s Cheerleader topped the Billboard Hot 100 for multiple weeks in the summer of 2015. It was certified for sales of three million copies in the US that year.
Boombastic was a Top 10 hit for Shaggy in 1995. The single was certified platinum in August of that year.
In 1994, singer Ini Kamoze topped the Billboard Hot 100 with Here Comes The Hot Stepper. It went platinum in December.
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