Nigeria, Oct. 12 -- The Naira Marley trilogy--Soapy, Opotoyi, and Am I a Yahoo Boy?-is a study in curious unification: it has that capacity to melt into one fanatic crowd, a herd of impenitent sinners and venturesome saints. And this unity is no respecter of geography; it exists in the club, the pub or even the cathedral. The artiste himself cheekily identifies his crowd--'Marlians'--as folks with 'no manners', a rather problematic yet predictable nomenclature.

First off, the ubiquity of Naira Marley's sounds has shown that the larger import of his works on culture and society can be dissected without an outright stifling of his art, which tilts heavily towards and draws inspiration from (social) defiance.

In any case, if handled quite ...