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Dance ‑hall Artists Complain That They Can’t Use Slackness.

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I had a con­ver­sa­tion on a social site with an edu­cat­ed Jamaican woman, who also hap­pened to be an edu­ca­tor. She is con­vinced that patios (pat­wa) is a great teach­ing tool for stu­dents, she elo­quent­ly argues that there is data sup­port­ing her posi­tion that patios enables kids to learn English bet­ter. I dis­agree, let me has­ten to say I am not an edu­ca­tor, and do not pre­tend to be one. I do have com­mon sense. I believe if par­ents had the means to teach English to their chil­dren at the pre‑k lev­el, these kids would arrive at the ele­men­tary lev­el bet­ter off. The first four years are the for­ma­tive years, chil­dren are like sponges, they soak up every­thing they hear and see. In the case of Jamaica, as in the case of African-American com­mu­ni­ties where many chil­dren learn Ebonics, chil­dren are at a dis­ad­van­tage. I believe these chil­dren have to go through a debrief­ing of sorts, and what amounts to a re-ori­en­ta­tion, to acquaint them with stan­dard English. It seem that for both teach­ers and stu­dents that time could be bet­ter spent, ie, learn­ing a legit­i­mate sec­ond language.

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Even as my friend and I dis­agree on this issue, Jamaican dance-hall artiste, are com­plain­ing bit­ter­ly that they are being forced to water down their artis­tic tal­ents by cut­ting out  smut or even bleeped out smut. I mean real­ly? The Broadcast com­mis­sion have final­ly come to it’s sens­es, and is cor­rect­ly pro­tect­ing the air­waves from the cor­ro­sive garbage they ped­dle as music, they com­plain they are get­ting a fight. This is what hap­pen when there is a lack of lead­er­ship. A soci­ety sim­ply can­not main­tain it’s via­bil­i­ty if every­one is allowed to do what they want, my grand­fa­ther always told be even hell has rules. What these smut ped­dlers are say­ing is, that they are unable to com­mu­ni­cate effec­tive­ly using stan­dard English and with­out the exple­tives-laden-tirades which pass­es for lyrics.

By the way real Jamaican artists have done so long before these char­la­tans killed the music.

The Clarendonians.

Paragons.

Toots and the Maytals.

Freddy Mc Gregor.Gregory, Issacs, Barrington Levy, Sugar Minot,

Dennis Brown. Millie Small, Susan Kadogan,Ken Boothe, Alton Ellis,Delroy Wilson.

Beres Hammond, Wayne Wade, Sanchez, Marcia Griffiths, Carlene Davis.

Skattalites.

I could go on and on, and for those who con­tin­ue to spread the lie that some­how this crap they now ped­dle is music, ask the aver­age per­son on the streets which they would pre­fer, the music of yes­ter­year or what obtains today?People hard­ly dance any­more, they just stand around and look. Between the con­stant stop and start, the pro­fane yelling scream­ing, what pass­es for dance-hall is lit­er­al­ly killing reg­gae music. The so-called Artists and their sup­port­ers are sim­ply too blind to see it.

All the great ones who cre­at­ed the music, did so with­out the filth, no one should believe the lie that music must or should be filled with degen­er­a­tive smut. Let them learn to com­mu­ni­cate with­out the smut or find some oth­er pro­fes­sion. The notion that they should be allowed to prop­a­gate that garbage on soci­ety is laugh­able it is an indica­tive of the deep­er rot which is eat­ing away at society.

8 thoughts on “Dance ‑hall Artists Complain That They Can’t Use Slackness.”

  1. Hi I appre­ci­ate you start­ing a con­ver­sa­tion about this top­ic. I wrote an e‑book/​digital music guide, with Fureus, own­er of State-US Records in Duncans, Trelawny. Can I post a link? http://​reg​gae​mu​sicguide​.com/​R​e​g​g​a​e​_​M​u​s​i​c​_​G​u​i​d​e​/​W​e​l​c​o​m​e​.​h​tml

    We fea­ture many dance­hall artistes (I use the American spelling in the book) and many, includ­ing Fureus are writ­ers of con­scious music. We also hope to be part of the con­ver­sa­tion that Vybz Kartel’s and Michael Dawson cre­at­ed in their book, “The Voice of the Jamaican Ghetto,” that dance­hall is impor­tant as the par­ties are a way for peo­ple to cre­ate jobs and cash flow. Performers, food and drink providers, sound sys­tem and video — all con­tribute to the local economy. 

    I’m still try­ing to under­stand patois but like to hear Fureus speak it and think it’s only nat­ur­al for peo­ple in com­mu­ni­ty to have their own slang and way of speak­ing to each oth­er but it does­n’t replace being able to read or com­mu­ni­cate with oth­ers in a stan­dard way which is what lan­guage is about. Art and music (my opin­ion) is the way we com­mu­ni­cate too on anoth­er, high­er level.

  2. Thanks for the link Dona, I will take a read as soon as fin­ish my response to you, I do appre­ci­ate that it is impor­tant that peo­ple be allowed to speak using what­ev­er slang they chose. I am a huge fan of reg­gae music in all it’s forms, as I lis­ten to it all day at work , in my car on the way home and lis­ten to it on my com­put­er some­times using head-sets. My quar­rel is not with the dance-hall artiste using patios (pat­wa) as the vehi­cle to deliv­er the music, in fact part of the lure of dance-hall is exact­ly the pat­wa vehi­cle that is used to bring it to the world.
    What innu­mer­able oth­ers and I have a prob­lem with, is what else is com­mu­ni­cat­ed in the music, pro­fan­i­ty, sex­u­al­ly explic­it lyrics, which are best suit­ed for the bed room and crude sex­u­al acts which leaves noth­ing to the imagination.
    My point is reg­gae artists have been able to com­mu­ni­cate quite effec­tive­ly to the world with­out the pro­fan­i­ty laced mur­der lyrics today’s artists are insist­ing they can­not do without.
    It is indeed not true, and the broad­cast com­mis­sion must be com­mend­ed for stand­ing for the silent major­i­ty who are afraid to speak up because of fear from some in this industry.
    Dance hall did not start with these who today defame and deface it, it has been around since quadrille and ska, any­one who grew up in Jamaica and love music under­stand that the moniker “dance-hall-music“is just a new wrap­per for an old product.
    Thanks for your response.

  3. Dear Mike,

    I want­ed to give you the link to the FREE DOWNLOAD of our book:

    http://​www​.reg​gae​mu​sicguide​.com/​R​e​g​g​a​e​_​M​u​s​i​c​_​G​u​i​d​e​/​D​o​w​n​l​o​a​d​.​h​tml

    I’d appre­ci­ate any help you can give us pub­li­ciz­ing our book. If you read the press release on the home page you will get more infor­ma­tion about our intent. Yes, we under­stand as you say that “Dancehall” is just a new wrap­per for an old prod­uct and reg­gae, dub, ska, etc. has had a pro­found influ­ence on hip-hop and now dub tech­no. Pretty excit­ing. Also, reg­gae is being embraced by many coun­tries and peo­ple all over the world which is quite excit­ing. Thanks for any help. I appre­ci­ate your blog and the work you are doing.

    • Thanks Dona, I will read the book , I will also get back with you regard­ing how we may help each oth­er. Much love.

  5. I agree with your response as it relates to patois or more specif­i­cal­ly Jamaican cre­ole. The pro­ject­ed out­come ‚by your so called edu­cat­ed friend ‚by the use of such means to an end is just ludi­crous, non­sen­si­cal and defies rati­o­ci­na­tion , you have ade­quate­ly addressed the point . There was a University of the West Indies edu­ca­tor and pro­fes­sor , whose name is irrel­e­vant at this time , who was push­ing the same thought process­es as your edu­cat­ed friend , but beyond her seem­ing com­mit­ment was a finan­cial gain , more stu­dents for the depart­men­t’s fac­ul­ty . With that said , I too love all the forms of reg­gae . I have always main­tained that we are not in a utopi­an soci­ety , peo­ple have diverse views and their are mech­a­nism in any soci­ety to address any abnor­mal­i­ty that devi­ates from the accept­ed norms of the soci­ety , this the rea­sons for the broad­cast com­mis­sion, for which in a rear occas­sion ha

  6. .…rear occa­sion you have agreed an agency of the state . I am not against any forms of the music , its evolv­ing . People will love tra­di­tion­al form and some will love gut­ter kind , time and place for every­thing . I dont think how­ev­er that they should be played in the pub­lic domain , our chil­dren and per­sons who do not approve should not forced to listen .

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