Marlians,

Since he emerges as one of Nigerian most influential musician, Naira Marley has been portrayed, marked as a bad influence. In spite of this notoriety, Naira Marley continues to gain popularity, increase his influence on his followers who simply described themselves as Marlians. Obviously, Naira Marley is the President.

Naira Marley established his reign as the king of Nigerian street music this year (2019) shortly after members of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) picked him for fraudulent related activities. During incarceration, the news went viral, his name and music travelled with it everywhere. In a twinkle of an eye, Naira Marley stock rose to sky-high levels and upon getting released on bail, he rode on his popularity with the release of more songs, more tweets, more controversies. Naira Marley rise shows how brilliant of a man he is no wonder Nigeria A-list musicians such as Wizkid, Ycee and Olamide hailed him as the most sizzling artist in 2019. The latter is considered by many as the current king of street music, for him to acknowledge Naira Marley's dominance speaks volume.

On December 17, 2019, Naira Marley capped off his amazing year with a 6-track EP titled, ‘Lord of Lamba,’. The album was released before MarlianFest, his concert which was set for December 30, 2019 (See, another brilliant move). Shortly after its release, the album became one of the most-streamed albums on all digital platforms. One of the songs in the 6-tracks album, Tesumole might just be the best Naira Marley song ever.


Tesumole is produced by Rexxie and it’s morphing into a cultural moment. A dance routine is already alive for the song. Lyrically, it comes with some hidden messages that you might have not paid attention to.

Well, I can't dance to save my life, the lyrics of a song entices me to a song, and some words from the song, Tesumole says a lot about Naira Marley. I put together 2 quick hidden messages from the song, Tesumole. If you are ready.

Marijuana and Underage 
Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug among Marlians, the President frequently promote it, smoke it, and talk about it in his songs. However, he is against the use of Marijuana by the underage.

Naira Marley proves this in the song, Tesumole where a part of the lyrics says "ma lo fa o, it's not for children ma lo fa" which translates, "do not smoke that, it's not for children, do not smoke that". The message was clear enough. Many will argue that his advice might not count. The truth is, the best advice comes from people who have drifted a similar way. Our.

He Believes in Jesus
Naira Marley is a Muslim, he graduated from the Islamic school as a brilliant Quran student before fame. Well, Indeed, he likewise has faith in Jesus but he will not accept the tag "Devil's child". He expressed this when he sings "Marlians ma ni awa, won fe yo J kuro ninu Jesu wa..." which translates "We are Marlians they want to remove J from our Jesus". 

It probably won't make sense at first, however when you consider the fact that if you remove the letter "J" from "Jesu" (Yoruba spelling of Jesus), what you have left is "esu" which in Yoruba means "the devil".

Make sense right?

They may be razz, They may represent an idea that you are not comfortable with, however, Marlians are not children of the devil. This was the sermon preached by the President himself. So therefore, Ma fo.