Forget Unreleased Footage, These are the Best Bob Marley Tributes on the Internet

This article originally appeared on Noisey UK.

Yesterday was the 70th birthday of Bob Marley, a world-beating musician who inspired protest, celebration, universality and enough zippo lighters to make Che Guevera look like a minor league player. He is also the sort of ubiquitous icon who still motivates legions of dedicated fans. These are fans who understand that music is not just something to be listened to. Music is something to be cherished, indoctrined, printed on posters and sold at freshers fairs. It needs to be understood, covered, impersonated, reworked and painted on your nails. With this in mind we have stepped way out of our comfort zones and spent all day on the internet, digging out the most fitting tribute videos we could find on Youtube to collate our own celebration of the man. It’s what he would have wanted. Probably.

So, with the totally legit excuse of an anniversary, please enjoy our catalogue of bad dreads, fan art and weird fake accents - our Birthday present to Bob. One love.

Shouts out to Marley Natural for this deeply cathartic compilation of Bob’s life, all in the name of selling his favourite snack. Despite the advert marketing ganja as if it were a new fair trade couscous mix available in Waitrose, it really does speak to those profound moments of self-realisation you get while staring at your own reflection after four joints, wondering if that's how you really look. Also kudos to whoever narrates the ad for managing to make the words “the herb” sound sexy.

If you want to take your Bob Marley fan art further than your nails this tutorial will help you draw his face perfectly. Packed full of intricate and detailed instructions like “now draw the shape of Bob Marley’s head”, this video will equip you to fashion a masterpiece of the legend. When I’ve finished I’m going to hang mine up next to the big throw I bought when I was travelling.

Beatboxing is one of music’s most nostalgic novelties; it tricks listeners time and time again into thinking they are listening to a drum machine when really there’s just a man in a cap spitting in their face. Enter Matisyahu, the American-Hebrew reggae rapper, who not only sings Bob Marley songs, but then pretends to be a drumkit over them. Blessed.

People commenting under this video seem to really like it. One person has even written “Who would dislike this?” Good question. I mean, who could possibly dislike this?

In another wonderful tribute to the big guy, Youtube user karly rae has thoughtfully uploaded a step-by-step guide on how to paint Marley-inspired nails. As she details in the voice over, she was listening to Bob Marley one night playing with her polish when she suddenly thought, “Omigosh Bob Marley! I should do a Bob Marley inspired nail tutorial!” Well, karly rae, we are grateful for that eureka moment. Now we can all paint our nails with green, yellow and red stripes with a cute little peace symbol on the middle finger. I just hope it won’t crack when I’m bunning a zoot tonight!

Crack smoking, ex-mayor of Toronto Rob Ford here with the absolute best YouTube has to offer in terms of Bob Marley covers. Jokes aside I could genuinely listen to him sing the line “feel alright” looped for about 14 hours.

So that’s it. The unseen side of Bob Marley’s 70th. Shouts out to all the white bros getting blazed in rastacaps. Today is your day.

You can follow Angus on Twitter: @a_n_g_u_s