Jamaican Researcher

Banned: Exorcising Dancehall Language and Popular Social Themes?

Vybz Kartel and Spice (Male and Female DJ 2008-09)

The Excellence in Music and Entertainment (EME) awards was held on February 5, 2009 at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel. The highlights of the night’s event were Vybz Kartel and Spice, who were awarded the coveted and highly competitive titles of: Male and Female DJs  of the Year (2008-09). Their combination song, Romping Shop, which has been at the nucleus of much controversy was awarded Song of the Year.

The popularity of the Romping Shop and Daggering, has apparently disgusted the Jamaican Government and has left media houses and personnel scrambling to put  acceptable rosters together for broadcast. For years sex and gun/ bad man lyrics have thrived on our airwaves. The artists who write, perform, and produce these songs have, for a long time, been rewarded by national entertainment bodies. They are highly sought after for commercials by corporate giants like Digicel and Cable and Wireless, and are portrayed as icons of ‘badmanism’ at annual events like Sting.

We have for many years, since I was a child in the 1980s and 90s, exposed our children, via the mass media, to songs which are dominated by themes such as sex and ‘badmanism’. We have therefore encouraged the development of the ‘evils’ that we are so hurriedly trying to exorcise from Dancehall culture. Indeed, the chickens have come home to roost! Oxy Moron in his Sunday Gleaner contribution, Hitching a ride on the daggering bus!, spoke about the popularity of public transportation as a means of conveying Dancehall culture to school children–This is not new information, in fact for years we have heard rumors of buses as hot spots for adolescent sexual activities, and we failed to effectively address it.

Spice- The Sex Goddess

Under heavy fire from all sectors of the society and way too late to be even slightly valid, the Broadcasting Commission published extended directives to:

“… prohibit transmission of any soca music content that displays, simulates or instructs about sexual activities or positions…[as well as] lyrics glorifying the gun and promoting killings and other acts of violence…immediate halt of:

• any live presentation, audio recording or music video from the soca, hip hop or other music genre, which promotes, contains references to, or is otherwise suggestive of ‘daggering’ or which publicly displays, simulates or instructs about explicit sexual activities or positions;
• any content from live coverage or recorded shows, dances or events which displays children participating in activities that simulate sexual activities or positions whether in street parades, stage shows or at any other event;
• any recording, live song or music video which promotes and/ or glorifies the use of guns or other offensive weapons;
• any recording, live song or music video which promotes or glorifies any offence against the person such as murder, rape, and mob violence or other offences such as arson.”

Vybz Kartel- The War Lord

The recent directives by the Broadcasting Commission will certainly affect the development of Dancehall music. Will the celebration of Vybz Kartel and Movado as war lords and Lady Saw and Spice as sex goddesses be things of the past? Can you picture Jamaica Carnival without public broadcast? Dancehall language is perceived by many Jamaicans as ‘evil’ and so are the accompanying dances and themes that emerge from the genre. As such, the attempt by the Broadcasting Commission to prohibit specific words, physical actions, and themes can be seen as an attempt by government to exorcise Dancehall of its culture.

Dr. Carolyn Cooper, in her Sunday Gleaner contribution: Is ‘Rampin’ Shop’ erotic in English? argued that the most problematic issues were concerning the way in which Dancehall presented sexual activities and intimate expressions in a vulgar and untamed way, compared to how other musical genres expressed it. Dr. Cooper said,

“Even in Jamaican, Rampin Shop is not poison; it’s not filth; it’s not debasement of women. The song is the tantric celebration of one of the fundamental pleasures of life. But some of us will never be able to see that. The language gets in the way. In English, ‘Playpen’ (Cooper’s English translation for the song title, Rampin Shop) could even be studied in school…with Chaucer. In Jamaican, bleeped or not, Rampin Shop is simply not fit for airplay; or literary analysis.”

The truth is, Dancehall culture is now international, and is becoming increasingly popular among young people in countries like Japan, Italy, and the United States of America. Dancehall queen competitions, and DJs are no longer exclusively Jamaican and it has retained many of its original essences–seen in the attire of patrons and the dances that they engage in at Dancehall events. It is rather ironic that at a time when most countries of the world are increasingly becoming more secular and embracing foreign musical genres like Dancehall, the Jamaican Government is exorcising its core.

Junko- Japanese native awarded Dancehall Queen in Jamaica