Bob Marley

Bob Nesta Marley was born in Jamaica during 1945 to his African-Jamaican mother Cedella Booker and his British Naval-officer father Norval Marley. He spent a great deal of his childhood living in poverty in Trenchtown and his relationship with his father was estranged at best. Not only did he have a father who didn't entirely want him (although he helped the family when he could) but he was somewhat of an outcast as a child, being born of two entirely different cultures in a way that prevented him from being fully accepted into either. This changed when he met the likes of Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh, venturing into the world of music and the reggae genre that was being conceived in the heart of Jamaica to soon explode throughout the rest of the world.

He has since become one of the singular defining figureheads for the genre, almost universally known and synonymous with the reggae movement. He was a practicing Rastafarian, and this and other reggae-popularized ideals are evident in his music, with their overt themes of love, tolerance, compassion, and peace, all accompanied with the distinctly relaxing and exotic musical sounds reggae is known for, steel drums and all. He used the position his popularity provided him to help bring those around him together, and instead of taking political sides in Jamaica sometimes served as a mediator between them, encouraging all parties to see his views of peace and cooperation despite their differences.
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/jun/16/bob-marley-peace-concert

Marley, seen uniting the hands of the two opposing political party leaders at the time during the One Love Peace Concert in which he had performed.

Marley passed away May 11th, 1981 from a form of malignant melanoma which had begun in his foot and since spread throughout his body, having had refused to have any sort of risk-reducing amputation take place due to religios reasons. Despite this, his legacy lives on today cementing him as not only one of the greatest influential musicians of all time, but philosophers as well.