Bob Marley and the Wailers’ 1978 album Kaya has officially been certified Platinum in the United Kingdom, marking a major milestone more than four decades after its release. According to the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), Kaya surpassed 300,000 in sales, earning BRIT Certified Platinum status on Friday, August 1.
Released in March 1978—just nine months after the politically-charged Exodus—Kaya marked a tonal shift for Marley. Recorded during the same London sessions that produced Exodus, the 10-track album traded protest anthems for introspective meditations on love, longing, and marijuana. The latter was symbolically emphasized by the ganja plant featured on the back cover. The album’s title itself is Jamaican slang for marijuana.
While Kaya received backlash at the time from critics and fans who viewed it as “too mellow,” Marley defended the pivot. “Me too militant. That’s why me did Kaya, to cool off the pace,” he told journalist Vivien Goldman in 1978. “Maybe if I try to make a heavier tune than Kaya they would have tried to assassinate me because I come too hard.”
Despite the criticism, Kaya was a commercial success. It became Marley’s highest-charting studio album in the UK, peaking at No. 4, and reached No. 50 on the US Billboard 200. It remains certified Gold in the United States with over 500,000 units sold.
The album produced two major UK hits—Is This Love, which peaked at No. 9 and has since amassed over 958 million plays on Spotify, and Satisfy My Soul, a sultry track inspired by Marley’s relationship with Cindy Breakspeare, with over 213 million streams.
Other standout tracks include Sun Is Shining (which later charted at No. 3 in the UK via a remix), Easy Skanking, Misty Morning, Running Away, and Crisis, which was sampled in YG Marley’s 2024 hit Praise Jah in the Moonlight.
Kaya is now only the second of Marley’s studio albums to be certified Platinum in the UK, joining Exodus. His iconic 1984 greatest hits compilation Legend remains the reggae standard-bearer with an astounding 15× Platinum certification in the UK.
