Jamaican Marlon Cotterell: Model, DJ, Philanthropist, World Traveler

Ever heard of The Rudimentals? They’re a reggae band based in Cape Town, South Africa and they currently hold the number one single on the South African charts titled Sound Boy Killa. Marlon Cotterell, a Jamaican model of Hugo Boss, Armani, Coca-Cola, Cosmopolitan and GQ fame, (to name a few) is a lead singer in the band. He is the only Jamaican in the 9 member group. Watch the video for the song below.

What do you think? I’m loving the beat!

Known also as Khaos, Marlon identifies as a member of the JOP crew with front runner Aidonia and hails from Cooreville Gardens in Kingston where he built a studio as a young boy and worked on music as his first love. After leaving Meadowbrook High School, his path would lead him to Saint International where his modelling career took hold and brought him to South Africa where he is now based.

His love of music however has always burned passionately for him and when the opportunity was presented to him to join The Rudimentals, he took his chance. As the only Jamaican in the group, he helps to bring the original flavour of Jamaica and reggae music to the already successful band. Though he now enjoys success in music with the new number one single, Cotterell credits fashion for giving him his big break and wants to help other Jamaicans follow his footsteps. I spoke with him recently and he detailed plans he’e developing with his agency to scout and sign one male and one female model in Jamaica, offering them a contract to work in South Africa for a few months. He’s passionate about Jamaica and wants to help others to experience the world as he has and hopefully achieve the same international success.

When asked to give advice to those aspiring models who may be excited about these new plans, the acclaimed model now in his 30s, emphasized the work ethic needed to succeed in such a competitive field. “Be prepared to work hard,” he states. “Learn to take rejection well as there will be a lot of rejection in this business. The sooner you let it go and move on, the easier it will be,” he continued. “Have a sense of presence about yourself. Know how to command a room and emanate confidence. This will help you to book jobs.” He also reminded us that this business is all about hard bodies so it remains important to be fit and sleek. Sound advice for anybody, really.

As a travel lover myself, I asked him to describe life in South Africa. “It is awesome! I am in Cape Town which is on the Southern tip of the continent. It is a diverse culture as there are a lot of people from Europe, America and the Western world but racism is still a problem here as it is a fairly young nation, being only 21 years since the apartheid was broken.” Marlon reveals that Thailand is his favourite place visited during his career so far because of the warmth of the people and the overwhelming beauty of the land. Can’t wait to go myself!

Congrats to Marlon Cotterell on his success so far and kudos for extending an arm to the aspiring.