What Is Music 2.0

Music 2.0 is revolutionizing the entertainment industry in ways that were previously unimaginable. Gone are the days when music was marketed on the basis of scarcity. Such approaches are merely relics, which will die in the face of networking via the personal computer (PC) and telephone.

Music 2.0 presents opportunities for fair play and equity in the industry; enabling independent and established artists to be promoted, played, and judged largely by their personalities rather than the investment of record companies. Independent and emerging artists are, therefore, liberated from the challenges associated with ethnocentrism and payola.

From Scarcity to Abundance

The future of music is in the hands of every single individual who has access to the Internet–a large number of whom are riding the ‘Web 2.0 Express’ (using social networking utilities, blogs, etc.) to share content and interact with friends. This is fertile ground for artists and other content creators to attract fans to their personalities–selling much more than a song, album, book, video, magazine or souvenir; and marketing themselves as articulate and multi-talented individuals with strong interpersonal skills.

The possibilities presented to artists and other stakeholders, by Music 2.0, are phenomenal. Check out the following presentation by Media Futurist, Gerd Leonhard.

‘Music 2.0 artists’ attract attention to themselves and their music by using multiple networking and communications channels, which increase access to their content. They share content with end-users, making it abundant and available for copy and distribution at the click of a button–Bye, bye corporate intermediaries…record companies, distribution outlets, and broadcasting and advertising agencies; Hello low cost, content rich, collaboration-oriented and interactive communication.

First on board the ‘Music 2.0 Express’ in Jamaica are the independent and emerging artists, many of whom are neglected by mainstream media. Now, their beautiful melodies can be found in the public and private spaces of music end-users located all over the world. To captivate a meaningful section of this global audience though, Jamaican artists must build their technical and social skills, which are critical for sustainability and success on the ‘Music 2.0 Express’. This is promotion that payola can’t buy.

ReverbNation.com is a Music 2.0 company that is responding to the changing music business paradigm…providing innovative marketing solutions that musicians need to compete, cooperate, and differentiate in an increasingly noisy online environment. Unlike typical “closed” communities, artists use ReverbNation as their home base for approaching marketing and promotion across the Internet as a whole…

Check out the following clip of a RevebNation Tour.

Ne-Yo

The directive for the censorship of Romping Shop is not simply an assault by the state on ‘slackness’ or Dancehall culture. In fact, its familiar rhythm, copied from Ne-Yo’s, Miss Independent, has brought international pressure on the Broadcasting Commission to regulate musical content and place a ban on the distribution and promotion of Romping Shop. It seems as if this situation has added fuel to a burning fire, as the ban was not limited to the ‘copyright offensive’ song, rather it sought to curtail many elements of the ‘socially offensive’ Dancehall culture.

Check out the following videos–the similarity of the rhythm is indisputable…

There is an important question to be asked in this situation of copyright infringement, Why was ‘Romping Shop’ awarded song of the year, publicized internationally, and promoted across the Jamaican mass media, if it was only a demonstration record (white label)?

Spice

Answers to this question may lead us to the source of the problem–a general disregard for intellectual rights and an absence of an effective classification, monitoring and regulatory system for creative content in Jamaica. Copyright protection is no joke, and the stakeholders of the Jamaican music industry simply ignored it in this case. This leaves us to wonder, Who is in charge of monitoring the use of intellectual property?

Vybz Kartel

So many things went wrong in this Romping Shop situation–necessitating such things like: artist development and education about a number of critical issues; reformation of the standards surrounding how we classify creative content; and the establishment of a regulatory system to monitor human (including intellectual) rights and government legislation and policies concerning such rights.

We cannot reform and get the best from our creative industries if we do not invest in its development–Better preparation is definitely needed.

Vybz Kartel & Spice

Intro:]
[Kartel:] Ah di techer
[Spice:] And ah spice
[Kartel:] Every man grab a gyal
[Spice:] And every gyal grab a man
[Kartel:] Man to man, gyal to gyal dats wrong
[Spice:] Scorn dem
[Kartel:] All wen a nite yuh pussy feel like sun hot; wen yuh come inna mi ramping shop
[Spice:] Mek sure yuh kno how fi wuk and ah nuh chat yah ah chat

[Verse 1:]
Hey, mi cocky longa than mi Nike
Tell mi wah yuh like
Yuh wah mi try or yuh wah fi ride it like a bike
Well, yuh haffi ram it hard
Di cocky nuh fi lie
Damage it fi spite
Not becah mi pussy tight
Suppose mi put it pon di lef
Gyal yuh tek it pan di right
Mi nipple dem a ripe
Sen it up inna mi tripe
Wah titi appetite
Every nipple get a bite
Mi man haffi go see it
Mi and him haffi go fight

[Hook:]
Cah me haffi wine pon di cocky like dis
Kartel spin me like a satellite dish
Deal wid yuh breast like mi crushing irish
Spice I neva love a pussy like dis
You ah my mista
You ah my miss
Kill me wid di cocky
Kill me wid di tightness
And when you a come
Whispa someting like dis
I can’t stop fucking you

[Chorus:]
Hey, cocky nuh play
Me will bruk yuh back
When yuh come inna mi ramping shop
Me will quint it up two time and pop yuh cock
When yuh come inna mi ramping shop
Me will mek yuh run out a mi house
Inna half ah frock
When yuh come inna mi ramping shop
A gyal eva ride pon it and gi yuh heart attack
When yuh come inna mi ramping shop

[Verse 2:]
Spice ah you mi love
Yuh kno how fi do yuh stuff
Yuh pussy buff
Plus it squeeze like handcuff
Kartel ah you mi love
See it deh mi cock it up fi yuh ramp ruff
Til mi belly cramp up
Shhh di climax begun
Bear sweat a run
Hold mi tight spice
Me feel like me ah cum
Mi nah let yuh go
So don’t let me down
Me two phone a ring and me nah ansa none

[Hook:]
Cah me haffi wine pon di cocky like dis
Kartel spin me like a satellite dish
Deal wid yuh breast like mi crushing irish
Spice I neva love a pussy like dis
You ah my mista
You ah my miss
Kill me wid di cocky
Kill me wid di tightness
And when you a come
Whispa someting like dis
I can’t stop fucking you

[Chorus:]
Hey, cocky nuh play
Me will bruk yuh back
When yuh come inna mi ramping shop
Me will quint it up two time and pop yuh cock
When yuh come inna mi ramping shop
Me will mek yuh run out a mi house
Inna half ah frock
When yuh come inna mi ramping shop
A gyal eva ride pon it and gi yuh heart attack
When yuh come inna mi ramping shop

[Bridge:]
[Kartel:] Ah di techer
[Spice:] And ah spice
[Kartel:] Every man grab a gyal
[Spice:] And every gyal grab a man
[Kartel:] Man to man, gyal to gyal dats wrong
[Spice:] Scorn dem
[Kartel:] All wen a nite yuh pussy feel like sun hot; wen yuh come inna mi ramping shop
[Spice:] Mek sure yuh kno how fi wuk and ah chat yah ah chat

[Chorus:]
Cocky nuh play
Me will bruk yuh back
When yuh come inna mi ramping shop
Me will quint it up two time and pop yuh cock
When yuh come inna mi ramping shop
Me will mek yuh run out a mi house
Inna half ah frock
When yuh come inna mi ramping shop
A gyal eva ride pon it and gi yuh heart attack
When yuh come inna mi ramping shop

Lyrics taken from www.6Lyrics.com

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