I am very worried about dancehall, yes this is true. I am worried about the direction and the influence of dancehall itself. When I was a child growing up and listening to dancehall music, I knew there was something special about this new sound that had immerged during the most violent period of Jamaica's history. When the youths of the ghettos were frustrated with any situation, this was one of the few ways they would voice their opinions, views or feelings in an artistic form and people would actually listen. Being a DJ, aka rapper, was more about being recognized more than being anything else. A DJ would stand around a sound system's "control" and toast the microphone, just to be heard and rewarded with praises "fi niceup di dance". It was not until the latter part of the 1970s when DJs were now being listened to by overseas audiences, that artists realized that the genre had the potential of becoming as popular as reggae and any other musical art form.
The breakthrough album, “Nice up the Dance”, released in1978, by Michigan and Smiley opened a whole new world of possibilities for Dancehall music. DJs were now being billed by overseas promoters to perform at nightclubs and stage shows. The Lone ranger, Josie Whales, Charlie Chaplin, King Yellowman, EekaMouse, Little John, General Echo are some of the artists who benefited early from the new awareness of dancehall. Since then, dancehall has reached great levels of recognition worldwide with DJs emerging from all corners of the earth. Gentleman from Germany, Kevin Lyttle from St. Vincent, and Collie Buddz from New Orleans, USA are just some of a host of artists that have joined the fraternity and are enjoying huge success in the dancehall arena. But for some reason inspite of dancehall's huge popularity, only a few artists have made major breakthrough in mainstream entertainment. Reggae Report magazine's founder and publisher Peggy Quattro, recently wrote an article urging DJs to be more professional, but with all due respect I don't think they need to be professional more than how they are already, I think they need to be more discrete. In another situation in Dominica, Movado was almost banned from performing at a concert because of his songs lyrical contents about gays and guns. Rappers from America do perform songs about guns and is still signed by major record labels. But when you combine gays and guns that is the perfect fear factor.
You know the old Jamaican saying, "humble calf drinks the most milk", well that is the attitude Jamaican artists must adopt before they reach that level of success that artist like Shabba Ranks, Mad Cobra, Shaggy and Sean Paul have reached. These artists must understand that if a recording label’s CEO is gay, there is no way he is going to sign an artist that bashes gays at every opportunity he gets. This need to profile your masculinity is totally unnecessary. It is like this, if you have to remind your wife that you are both married whenever you go out in public, well I think it's time you get a divorce.
Dancehall is revered by nations all over the world with some of the best dancehall sound systems and selectors in the business not originating from Jamaica but from countries like Japan, Germany and Italy. Baldwin, formally of Hardcopy magazine in Jamaica, once wrote an article some years ago, warning DJs to stop highlighting the gay community. The more you speak about someone, whether it be positive or negative, it makes that person more popular. Jamaican artists must start deciding if they want to be "Jamaican rich" or wealthy, because not realizing who has the wealth in this world is the first mistake in pursuing wealth. And remember if it wasn't for the foundation DJs like King Stitch, Daddy URoy, Brigadier Jerry, Kojac and Mumma Liza, Mumma Nancy, Lady Ann and many more who made sacrifices like lifting and sleeping on sound boxes, talking on microphone from late evening to early morning and still did not even get a dollar for some of those sleepless nights, just to create an avenue so that Shabba and Sean Paul can receive Grammy awards there would not be a dancehall genre.
My friend George Appiah from Ghana told me that a great soldier once said, when he fights, it's not that he hates or wants to kill who is in front of him, but it is because he loves who is behind him. DJs and Singers let us go get wealthy.
No comments:
Post a Comment