Post by kaya on May 1, 2005 16:25:52 GMT -5
Article
Think We Did Done? - We Jus A Come
Entertainment
Charles H E Campbell
Sunday, May 01, 2005
"Now yuh get what yuh waant, do you waant more?"
('Want More' - Bob Marley)
The so-called debate continues to swirl, but in all the hullabaloo, we forget one simple fact - dancehall music does not portray uptown images. It is the voice of the inner-city communities.
It is the stories of life in the inner city - the wants, needs, unemployment, scarce benefits, marginalisation, disenfranchisement and alienation. The best of dancehall is uniquely creative and intuitive - who else can perform Capleton's Or Wha or Small World, or carry out the on-stage antics of a Ninja Man, Beenie Man or Elephant Man? The lyrics may be violent and crass, but this mirrors life in the inner city.
Though we have also been bombarded by the slackness, since the 1980s and the gun talk in the 1990s, the essential message of the music has remained constant since it emerged, even as social conditions in the urban communities have deteriorated.
".Well, poor people fed up, to how the system sheg up."
('Fed Up' - Bounty Killer)
I remember attending the Vybz Kartel birthday bash held at La Roose Nightclub and Lounge three years ago. Bounty Killer, aka 'the Poor People Governor', comes on stage and approximately five minutes into his performance he stops the accompanying music.
He then proceeds, for two hours, to condemn the entire society for hypocrisy, injustice and abandonment of the youth and the inner-city residents and hence a total lack of moral authority. Although his 'sermon' is liberally laced with gun talk, expletives and we get the obligatory abuse of gays and feminine dignity, this is relatively insignificant tonight.
Yes, those topics pale in comparison to his effective, eloquent treatise on, and sentence of government corruption, politicians' machinations, the police force and army brutality, the unjustness of the judges and legal system, the atrocities committed by the warders and the prison system, the uncaring churches and the formal business sector, the insularity of the intellectuals, the inertia of the universities and the dysfunctional education system, the bias in the media, the causes of crime and violence, uptown double standards, the older generation blindly holding on to power for too long, traditional (European) values and the lack of respect for the independent achievements of the discarded majority who through their own self-reliance have created more than just hope out of hopelessness.
Meanwhile the bar and kitchen have stopped selling, the vendors on the outside all congregate at the grilled gates and atop the walls and the audience surges to the front of the stage so as to more keenly listen, participate and respond.
He has them eating out of his hand. This is the true power and worth of Bounty Killer and others, which the common man sees and experiences. Not the expletives and gay bashing for which they are appropriately censored by civil society and on which the media focus.
The condemnatory voices calling for sanctions for these indiscretions have reached a shrill pitch, forcing some sponsors recently to distance themselves from this behaviour.
It concerns me, however, that there is no equal hue and cry from these same conscientious 'objectors' against the conditions in the inner cities and their impact on the residents' daily lives. It must appear to the average youth that civil society believes that by silencing these artistes, they will solve the problems militating against the social peace and harmony.
Cutty Ranks' Better Day aptly represents these sentiments, ".woe unto dem who a fight the ghetto youth, tru dem nuh waan them fi rise and elevate from the root, woe unto dem who nuh waan speak the truth, after dem force dem into crime fi go loot and shoot."
On the reverse side of this issue stand some other hardliners - those who wholeheartedly defend dancehall music and culture uncompromisingly.
This neither engenders nor promotes a real debate among stakeholders - no one side is prepared to listen to the next. So here are some matters that I suggest beg discussion and analysis, especially by those of us in the music industry.
One wonders if there would be any debate at all if dancehall wasn't successful? Yes, it does have an impact on the youths and yes, its stars become role models, because it finds empathy in the bars and dancehalls.
In this surreal, bizarre, melodrama however, egomania slinks opportunistically, just below the surface. When the stars are elevated to idols with only minor achievements or they keep that status for too long, they begin to say and do things that hurt them and the people around them; a la Fantan Mojah at Western Consciousness 2005.
Is it primarily because this is a sure way to gain notoriety and grab the attention of civil society, the media and, by extension, their fans. Which entities or interests most thrive on or benefit from the controversies spurred?
So do dancehall lyrics add to the violence? How about the words uttered by politicians? I am intrigued to hear some of the very same people who repetitiously spout this cliché, valiantly rationalise and redefine the meaning of the word 'bangarang' in our cultural dictum, as used by Bruce Golding.
In the same context, doesn't media's (especially TV's) style of reporting on and treatment of the spiral of violence in the communities - manipulated by the instant stars that it creates nightly - help to precipitate the looming peril of the collapse of the state and the society? Is it a wonder that the dancehall hype and bling promote a materialistic, decadent nihilistic consumerism?
Wouldn't you say that the ostentatious buildings, trappings and lifestyles that we have come to associate with many local evangelical churches and church leaders display and reveal allegiance to the same value system?
It is no longer "96 Degrees In The Shade" (Third World) but "Fire burning, I feel the fire Burning"; Hell A Go Bruk Loose If Yuh Don't Deliver Us (Bob Andy). The basis for what is occurring now was laid more than four decades ago.
"You think it's the end, but it's just the beginning." ('Want More', Bob Marley)
The first step towards national rehabilitation and transformation is a reawakening of our social conscience, helping the less 'well off' while cultivating friendships between classes. As Marcia Griffiths says on the cut Human Rights, from her latest album, Shining Time, ".They don't have no one to turn to, no one to give a helping hand, what about human rights, I don't understand." Remember "there will be no (lasting) peace until equal rights and justice stand for all" (Peter Tosh).
Barring natural or man-made intervention, for the first time in 20 years we now have an economic platform which we can use as a launching pad for the social advancement of all our people and not just the 'regarded minority'.
What is missing is mutual respect for everyone's self-esteem, a national vision, one set of national ideals, objectives and strategic targets designed to "emancipate ourselves from mental slavery" (Redemption Song, Bob Marley) that we all help to formulate and buy into.
© 2005 Charles H E Campbell
Bounty Killer
Taken From JamaicaObserver.com
www.jamaicaobserver.com
Think We Did Done? - We Jus A Come
Entertainment
Charles H E Campbell
Sunday, May 01, 2005
"Now yuh get what yuh waant, do you waant more?"
('Want More' - Bob Marley)
The so-called debate continues to swirl, but in all the hullabaloo, we forget one simple fact - dancehall music does not portray uptown images. It is the voice of the inner-city communities.
It is the stories of life in the inner city - the wants, needs, unemployment, scarce benefits, marginalisation, disenfranchisement and alienation. The best of dancehall is uniquely creative and intuitive - who else can perform Capleton's Or Wha or Small World, or carry out the on-stage antics of a Ninja Man, Beenie Man or Elephant Man? The lyrics may be violent and crass, but this mirrors life in the inner city.
Though we have also been bombarded by the slackness, since the 1980s and the gun talk in the 1990s, the essential message of the music has remained constant since it emerged, even as social conditions in the urban communities have deteriorated.
".Well, poor people fed up, to how the system sheg up."
('Fed Up' - Bounty Killer)
I remember attending the Vybz Kartel birthday bash held at La Roose Nightclub and Lounge three years ago. Bounty Killer, aka 'the Poor People Governor', comes on stage and approximately five minutes into his performance he stops the accompanying music.
He then proceeds, for two hours, to condemn the entire society for hypocrisy, injustice and abandonment of the youth and the inner-city residents and hence a total lack of moral authority. Although his 'sermon' is liberally laced with gun talk, expletives and we get the obligatory abuse of gays and feminine dignity, this is relatively insignificant tonight.
Yes, those topics pale in comparison to his effective, eloquent treatise on, and sentence of government corruption, politicians' machinations, the police force and army brutality, the unjustness of the judges and legal system, the atrocities committed by the warders and the prison system, the uncaring churches and the formal business sector, the insularity of the intellectuals, the inertia of the universities and the dysfunctional education system, the bias in the media, the causes of crime and violence, uptown double standards, the older generation blindly holding on to power for too long, traditional (European) values and the lack of respect for the independent achievements of the discarded majority who through their own self-reliance have created more than just hope out of hopelessness.
Meanwhile the bar and kitchen have stopped selling, the vendors on the outside all congregate at the grilled gates and atop the walls and the audience surges to the front of the stage so as to more keenly listen, participate and respond.
He has them eating out of his hand. This is the true power and worth of Bounty Killer and others, which the common man sees and experiences. Not the expletives and gay bashing for which they are appropriately censored by civil society and on which the media focus.
The condemnatory voices calling for sanctions for these indiscretions have reached a shrill pitch, forcing some sponsors recently to distance themselves from this behaviour.
It concerns me, however, that there is no equal hue and cry from these same conscientious 'objectors' against the conditions in the inner cities and their impact on the residents' daily lives. It must appear to the average youth that civil society believes that by silencing these artistes, they will solve the problems militating against the social peace and harmony.
Cutty Ranks' Better Day aptly represents these sentiments, ".woe unto dem who a fight the ghetto youth, tru dem nuh waan them fi rise and elevate from the root, woe unto dem who nuh waan speak the truth, after dem force dem into crime fi go loot and shoot."
On the reverse side of this issue stand some other hardliners - those who wholeheartedly defend dancehall music and culture uncompromisingly.
This neither engenders nor promotes a real debate among stakeholders - no one side is prepared to listen to the next. So here are some matters that I suggest beg discussion and analysis, especially by those of us in the music industry.
One wonders if there would be any debate at all if dancehall wasn't successful? Yes, it does have an impact on the youths and yes, its stars become role models, because it finds empathy in the bars and dancehalls.
In this surreal, bizarre, melodrama however, egomania slinks opportunistically, just below the surface. When the stars are elevated to idols with only minor achievements or they keep that status for too long, they begin to say and do things that hurt them and the people around them; a la Fantan Mojah at Western Consciousness 2005.
Is it primarily because this is a sure way to gain notoriety and grab the attention of civil society, the media and, by extension, their fans. Which entities or interests most thrive on or benefit from the controversies spurred?
So do dancehall lyrics add to the violence? How about the words uttered by politicians? I am intrigued to hear some of the very same people who repetitiously spout this cliché, valiantly rationalise and redefine the meaning of the word 'bangarang' in our cultural dictum, as used by Bruce Golding.
In the same context, doesn't media's (especially TV's) style of reporting on and treatment of the spiral of violence in the communities - manipulated by the instant stars that it creates nightly - help to precipitate the looming peril of the collapse of the state and the society? Is it a wonder that the dancehall hype and bling promote a materialistic, decadent nihilistic consumerism?
Wouldn't you say that the ostentatious buildings, trappings and lifestyles that we have come to associate with many local evangelical churches and church leaders display and reveal allegiance to the same value system?
It is no longer "96 Degrees In The Shade" (Third World) but "Fire burning, I feel the fire Burning"; Hell A Go Bruk Loose If Yuh Don't Deliver Us (Bob Andy). The basis for what is occurring now was laid more than four decades ago.
"You think it's the end, but it's just the beginning." ('Want More', Bob Marley)
The first step towards national rehabilitation and transformation is a reawakening of our social conscience, helping the less 'well off' while cultivating friendships between classes. As Marcia Griffiths says on the cut Human Rights, from her latest album, Shining Time, ".They don't have no one to turn to, no one to give a helping hand, what about human rights, I don't understand." Remember "there will be no (lasting) peace until equal rights and justice stand for all" (Peter Tosh).
Barring natural or man-made intervention, for the first time in 20 years we now have an economic platform which we can use as a launching pad for the social advancement of all our people and not just the 'regarded minority'.
What is missing is mutual respect for everyone's self-esteem, a national vision, one set of national ideals, objectives and strategic targets designed to "emancipate ourselves from mental slavery" (Redemption Song, Bob Marley) that we all help to formulate and buy into.
© 2005 Charles H E Campbell
Bounty Killer
Taken From JamaicaObserver.com
www.jamaicaobserver.com