Natty Dread

Natty Dread was made after Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer left, with Marley leading a new band and the I-Threes on backing vocals. Jean Roussel arranged three tracks. A gospel-style No Woman, No Cry with Tosh and female backing vocals was cut for Island in 1973, and an early Lively Up Yourself from that year remains unreleased. Them Belly Full warns that a hungry mob is an angry mob, and Rebel Music was written after Marley was stopped at a night-time police car check.

Several songs are credited to friends and family, such as Vincent Ford, Leon Cogill and Rita Marley. It is reported that this was done to avoid a publishing contract with Cayman Music, and a 1987 court decision favoured the Marley estate. The album reached number 43 in Britain, where it went gold, and number 92 in the United States in May 1975. AllMusic gave it five stars, Christgau an A, and Rolling Stone ranked it 181st on its 500 greatest albums in 2003 and 2012. In 2025 Rolling Stone placed Them Belly Full at number 12 on its list of the best protest songs.