Dancehall: who a mash it up?
In the following blog post, STAR of The Month, Dancehall artiste Konshens sounds off what he thinks is really destroying the music business.
Nowadays one of the hottest and most disturbing topics in the streets is the ‘mashing up’ of the local music industry. Every member of our fading business seems to have his or her own reasoning behind this crisis but no one is taking the time out to look at themselves as a possible factor. Who is to be blamed though?
It could be the selectors and disc jocks for playing biased and following whatever one disc jocks plays instead of actually listening to the millions of good songs out there dying for a run, and playing only seven artistes at every single party and in whatever segment.
It could be the producers for putting out lame productions and sixty new rhythms every week with the same artistes clearly indicating that production to them is about the artiste and not the ‘the song’.
It could be the new artistes for our poor work ethics, low regard for the roots and reputation of our music, the sidelining of our actual talent and special individual characteristics in an attempt to follow whatever is in to get a fast play.
It could also be the elder artistes for forgetting what they had to go through for music and allowing themselves to be sucked into this new age short hand trend where an artiste with 20 years under his or her belt is now toe-to-toe with an artiste with a few months to his credit.
It could also be the governing bodies for selling out and fighting out so many important aspects of dancehall culture and it could also be the ‘fans’, yes the general public. We the fans could also be a factor, we go to every session but we don’t really support. We want to go to the 300 parties on every night and we want to leave home at 10 o’clock and cram it all in an hour so there’s no early juggling for reggae music and vibing and visiting the bar and dem nice ting deh.
Its just twenty minutes to see what everybody else is wearing, bus two blank fi di really hot songs that are gonna be the same ones played at the next party anyway.
The fact of the matter is we all play a part in the killing of our music culture and business and until we stop pointing the finger and start addressing a solution, better we get out our funeral gear!
By Konshens
Tags: Alliance, artistes, Beenie Man, Bounty Killer, broadcasting commission, dancehall music, disc jockeys, fans, Gully, Konshens, lyrical war, Mavado, parties, reggae, selectors, street parties, vintage artistes, Vybz Kartel
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57 Responses to “Dancehall: who a mash it up?”
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I blame Kartel and Movado. They really need to stop with the war ting. I haven’t heard that many gun tunes in all the time I’ve been listening to dancehall music. The youths of Jamaica are taking this thing literal. I also blame the dumbass radio djs and sound system men who think that they can’t have a show without playing all these gun tunes. Gone are the day when man and woman would go out to a dance and really dance and enjoy themselves. Dancehall is at it’s lowest now. I know our legends still alive didn’t pave the way for this GARBAGE now.
This is a thoughtful post.
I would have to say that I blame the public:
- Disc Jockeys/Radio Stations want listeners in order to get advertisers so they play anything
- Artistes want to get airplay so they can get bookings and dub plates, so they voice anything
- Producers want to get as many riddims out the door and focus on “quantity” instead of “quality”
Naturally if the general public simply demanded higher quality, the radio stations/selectors, artistes and producers would all give us higher quality.
All the other stakeholders simply care about “eating a food”, not national development or the cultural impact.
[...] The Observer asks: “Is Jamaica losing Reggae” and Konshens wonders “Who a mash [the Jamaican music business] up?”, Jamaican artists Natalie Storm and Roundhead keep their heads up and appear on two wicked [...]
i agree with all of the above mentioned totally ,we need to go back to our roots,producers check yourselfs,selectors check yourselfs.fans,have respect for your fellow fans.overall,every fans,producers,and selectors should start having respect for the music again.remember BOB,DINIS,PETER AND ALL THOSE PIONEERS WHO MADE IT HAPPENED FOR US ALL…
Personally to me its of the above, from producers only looking to get a hype with the next hot riddim, the powers that be with laws and stances that are not benefical to the dancehall movement, and then you have artist not being true to them self or not true to the music only trying to rape the music game, and finally the worse of all the fans yes we the fans hold the majority of the blame if we want better we must demand better and stop supporting things that go against what we believe the artist them will change when the audience change
Excellent post my lord, if I may be permitted to add my two cents as the resident prophet.
Its time, yes you all read correctly the creator has declared that its time and the music is needed to uplift his people and as such everything have to pop dung to be rebuilt anew.
Reggae is a spiritual music and in fact its the vehicle that carries the word of god and allows that word to be spiritually programmed into the creators children subconscious.
We have perverted the music and in doing so perverted the spirituality of the people.
The creator has allowed us to continue with our madness so that we can learn what life is like without God in our life and so since we have taken out the praise out of reggae and is using the music to destroy god’s children we aren’t seeing any benefits from it.
It simple, you don’t need to be a PHD fi see it clear say now that we are in the last days the creator needs the Players of instrument pon her right hand like her matic.
It was all written so don’t despair these things had to happen
the prophet
STOP!To listen to the above postings is to assume that all this dancehall music is really important stuff! Reality: most of these “artistes” are semi-literate, non-productive members of our society whose contribution to Jamaica is usually the glorification of violence, disrespect for the Jamaican women and the encouragement of drug use. In short, the dumbing down of Jamaican youth. The average youth aspires to a career in dancehall rather than spending a few years at UWI to become useful members of society. Wake up Jamaica! Dancehall really isnt that important and should be seen only as an amusing diversion at best while we strive to pull our country out of the morass of poverty.
Boy, we certain had this coming. And I am afraid that this is not the worst of it yet. Maybe the Baby Boomers and Generation ‘X’ are tired of the ‘Raw Meat’ in the music, but Generation ‘Y’ (the new generation) grew-up with a music that gives instructions on how to ‘bust-a-man-scull’ and how to make a girl ‘sit-down-pon-mi-nozzle’. They are impervious to the violence – addicted to the “Raw Meat”. There in lies one of our biggest problems.
Sadly, this is the generation we expected to take Jamaica into the “Technological Age”. Instead they took us into the “Tech-9 Age”. From Buju Bantan’s “Bum-Bi-Bi” to Zizzler’s “Fire-Bun”, they do a great disservice to the music, culture, and country by poisoning youth from the root. Our poor youths…God bless them. These artistes feeding the public this inescapable Raw Meat are nothing but a bunch of self-serving, high-maintenance, and morally bankrupt fools. May their rein as agent of destruction be short. And may the mothers who have lost so many off-springs to this poison find comfort in the hope that things will change.
Blessed love
It is my opinion that all of the above are guilty of destroying the music. I remember around 1997 culture was the trend even djs who would normally not sing culture music were doing so. The vibes was real high amongst the artists dem time deh but eventually all those artist who were well hungry got they belly full & then the vibes were lost I remember sizzla wouldnt touch certain riddims due to their nature Also these days I see dancehall culture trying to imitate american hip-hop culture it seems like they are losing their roots to be gangstas & thugs Nowadays these guyz are coming out on every other riddim. Quantity over quality. I see we do face a serious deteriation of our dancehall music. I know a world without slack music will never manifest but in my opinion the solution is to keep a balance within the music. These producers need to start encouraging djs & singers to write more conscious lyrics us fans need to support more culture vibes & the artist need to realize that the youths look up to them & they will follow their footsteps. So they have a duty to teach the youth dem the right or continue to contribute to murder of peoples & culture.
No fear, reggae music always bounces back; the truth is the real nasty ugly stuff usually fades away because it lacks substance, over time its the real soulful stuff that comes to the top like cream rises to the top.
I remember when Ninjaman, and all dem craziness was going on, and I asked the question who will come rescue the music? soon came Capleton and Buju, and a whole host of cultural tunes took over.
This is the history of Reggae music; it always finds its way back to its original beginnings, which is a deep spiritual redemptive music that speaks to the heart and not the head. Reggae music is a chant for redemption by and for oppressed and downtrodden peoples everywhere, that chant will never die!!
Reggae forever!
respek!
Mento begot Ska, Ska begot Rocksteady, Rocksteady begot Reggae and Reggae begot Dancehall. Now at the advent of Dancehall the buck seemed to have stopped. We no longer focus on the other genres as they are reserved to the oldies category. Dancehall has dominated Reggae the past few decades and is a reflection of our society and the way it has deteriorated. Mento is reserved for Tourist, Ska has been adopted by various European Bands, Rocksteady is considered oldies and Reggae can now be found produced in many Countries around the world…it all come down to if we don’t know our past we won’t know our future.
I notice most dancehall tunes are remakes of American hip hop songs. It’s so corny.
I notice most artist make songs patterned after church melodies or childhood nursery rhymes.
I notice the fans really like these corny songs.
I have heard every possible way to kill somebody with every gun ever made.
I stop listening to dancehall since 2005.
There are 300 million ppl in the USA, Jamaica has 3 million. And artist and producers are making music for a small fragment of society.
Since the death of Bob Marley the rise of Yellow Man as King spelled death to the music.I was shock when I recently purchased a compilation cd produced by one company that claimed to be miles ahead to find that they mixed a few quality songs with tons of filth from thugs.Imagine listening to a beautiful song of peace and love followed by some criminal describing a person brain crawling out there skull the result of a gunshot wound.
I have been buying reggae since the mid 80′s.and I have been discouraged the last couple of times I purchased reggae.Until the power that be stop giving these criminal bastards a platform to express themselves there will be crime and violence.To hell with those stupid so called producers who are just hustling instead of producing.
Look like somebody finally see the light. I am a producer based in NY who realized that it is a waste of time and money to do anything with jamaican artists. The really talented new people cannot get any airplay, or exposure while the same old washed up crew get all the rage with their childish cursing back and forth instead of putting music out that people will remember after a month. The people who will buy music are not interested in what’s coming out these days. If you are over thirty you cannot dance to this stuff. It’s like disco or fast paced hip hop. I took my music to reggaeton and it’s slamming. The spanish market is the fastest growing, but they want a slower pace where all can dance and not just a bunch of dance groups flopping around like fish out of water.
I usually play sound system and radio programs and I would still do but the quality of the music is so far gone it can only pop down before we can STOP, THINK and ACT accordingly. The blame should be equally shared. If producers take their craft seriously then they will not allow certain songs to be recorded on there riddims, radio disc jockey should not take bribe to play songs or a particular artist and selectors would not encourage acts of lewdness and immorality at a session.
There is a fine line between spiritual music and music that inspire voilence. Entertainers always use the escuse that they do not import guns…but the applaud those who do. Entertainers endorse the gangs and thugs who are extorting, murdering and robbing our culture of its people the same supporters who patronize the dance. The dancehall culture has become the devils playground and thats why I am now sold out for Christ!
why the people in our community allow there neaubour to destroy our culture one of a kind where is our role moddel phophet marcous garvey king bob marley word sound & power people of your neaubor open your eyes our son & dauthers is ours star player to make us proud tommarow
Reggae (culture, lovers rock and dancehall)..started with cultural development and transcended to love and then into a more dance related entertainment.
Todays new Artiste has taken reggae has a lyrical competition and use it as ammunition against fellow Artiste and to degrade women.
The enjoyment of reggae, the music, is still somewhat alive…. but based on the now-a-days derogatory lyrics, that does not last more than 3 months, the producers think they have to come up with many rythims to sustain the market.
If the lyrics were more meaningful, uplifting and generally vibing, then there would be a wider acceptance and more sales.
For the more mature reggae enthusiast, we have to go back to oldies to enjoy it…
Blame the Eskimo
I am firm in a conviction that the beast, which is derogatory and violent dancehall music, is a result of demand and supply.
The people, who mostly support our mainstream music, are the poor and uneducated adults as well as teenage kids.
Do we expect a person who is cultured to not have independent, positive and ambitious thoughts to hit out against a song that praises the high points of their reality (sex and violence)? As such we would expect a greater demand will yield a greater supply of same.
Lets be true to ourselves, the dawn of dancehall saw these lyrics, but they were never seen as the fuel to the behaviour of our people. At UWI, the most popular artist is not Taurus Riley, its Vibes Kartel but education and a higher way of thinking has skewed there actions in a positive direction and so if this was a reflection of the nation, then dancehall music would not be seen as a problem.
The problem is due to Jamaicans who lack positive social influencers, hence the need to cling to the only influence, who are the entertainers and producers who will produce anything that they think will encourage sales.
So don’t blame the sales man for selling ice to the Eskimo, blame the Eskimo for buying.
Definately kartel!kartel has cross every boundary in dancehall from diss songs to which he made of derogative comments of a mother to devil worshiping to promoting teenage sex.
Nobody in history of the music have ever done these type things and we as Jamaicans need stand up and stop this foolishness or our kids will suffer…
No disrespect to Koshens, but he is part of the problem and not the solution. While he is a moderately talented artiste, he certainly is far from “exceptional” in any way. The tepid reaction he gets a major dancehall events shows the true differential between the so called “charts” and the “streets.” The Jamaican media promotes those artistes that “pay” to get the songs played and charted, thus creating a vaccume between what is truly liked and what is forced on the listeners. The result being songs that reach far on the charts, that nobody likes or even knows. Until Jamaican press and media stop taking payloa to promote these average artistes, dancehall will continue to disappear from the global stage.
Who says dancehall mash up? Please the industry is more creative and influential than it every has been even reach Gordon House. Dancehall has emerged from being a poor people thing to a global industry; just ask VP, Green sleeves and our Japanese friends who are capitalizing on it. What dancehall needs just like this country is better organization, then some management and promotion. Those without sin can go ahead and cast the first stones at Dancehall. But lets not forget that it continues to be the main cultural medium which promotes and often protects our culture. Whether our views on family, religion, love, male and female roles within the society. Think its time for all of us to see dancehall for what it is…having world-class potential.
Bwoy Konshens recently became one of my fav artiste because of this post. Konshens, Wayne Marshall and Assasin artistes with substance.
How could the Gleaner remove my very honest, and true post about payola in the Jamaican Music Industry, Did someone pay you to remove it? What happened to honest journalism?
Well, in my opinion, all points noted in the article are somewhat responsible for the current dismal state of the dancehall culture. The moment dem stop keeping dances in lawns-dedicated dancehall venues- and moved to the nightclub settings and an artiste was no longer required to undergo an “apprenticeship” in the dancehall deejaying on a sound system before him/ her “buss out”, I could see this coming -the current state of affairs, that is. The selectors nowadays on average have a very shallow knowledge of reggae music on a whole, which is why the following of today is so clueless where the music is concerned. As it is the selectors who traditionally set the pace and educate the audience. And this conversion to cd- don’t have lug heavy record boxes anymore- might be more efficient but it takes away the artistry involved in manning 2 turntables while talking to the audience and deciding what to play next. Now anybody can be a sound man. One just has to burn a bag of pirated cd’, put them in a case and presto, your a selecta ! If a suh it easy, de ting (dancehall) nuh must mash up man!!
The majority of the dancehall fan out there as lost their morals
the music and the production has been water down and the BS as become normal to the listen public
the disc jocks are feeding our ppl garbage because its all about a money making thing now
it has to do with who pays for their songs to be played
if any of you guys can remember Barry G on the radio back in the days, He would never play 90 percent of these songs i hear playing oin radio now, and thats where the break down begins, with the disc jocks both radio personalities and sound selector, if they didnt feed the public with it the public could have not hear of it, so now it seem as if there is no other choice buy yo listen to the crap.
I most say that I am please to see Jamaicans standing up to what is going on in the Dancehall today; It really pains me to see and listen what these voilence chanting tugs are putting out for our youths to consume on records. I have been ranting on our Dancehall Music for a couple of years now and the feedback of that I get from our young people is quite disheartening, they are some disrespectful and need I say extremly dumb.
I would suggest to the government to step in and make some correcting if the artist doesn’t want to; first hit them where it hurts, work with foregin immigration departments that these people are contracted to go do shows, advise them of the contents of every artist music and if they should be allowed in there country to bring this smelly gutter water to their young people, that would be a good start to correcting what they are doing to our music.
Jamaica is a failing state and we need to act now to save it, every last one of us need to be accountable, or we can start think about what it is like living in Haiti!
Jamaicans as always been cheated and lied to by our leaders, ever since we were given our independence up until this present moment, it is always about making us feel good about things that are not true and now we are paying dearly, our government dont want to tell the citizen of Jamaican that we are BANKRUPT but we are, we are surviving on borrowed money, that we will have to payback someday. So like our entertainers our government needs to be accountable.
I truly hope that this a wake up call for all interest in my country, and we having a $5000.00 note now is not a good thing!
Sorry if I stray away from the point abit. I am in pain to see what is happening in JAMAICA.
I must say that I am please to see Jamaicans standing up to what is going on in the Dancehall today; It really pains me to see and listen what these voilence chanting tugs are putting out for our youths to consume on records. I have been ranting on our Dancehall Music for a couple of years now and the feedback of that I get from our young people is quite disheartening, they are so disrespectful and need I say extremly dumb.
I would suggest to the government to step in and make some correcting if the artist doesn’t want to; first hit them where it hurts, work with foregin immigration departments that these people are contracted to go do shows, advise them of the contents of every artist music and if they should be allowed in there country to bring this smelly gutter water to their young people, that would be a good start to correcting what they are doing to our music.
Jamaica is a failing state and we need to act now to save it, every last one of us need to be accountable, or we can start think about what it is like living in Haiti!
Jamaicans as always been cheated and lied to by our leaders, ever since we were given our independence up until this present moment, it is always about making us feel good about things that are not true and now we are paying dearly, our government dont want to tell the citizen of Jamaican that we are BANKRUPT but we are, we are surviving on borrowed money, that we will have to payback someday. So like our entertainers our government needs to be accountable.
I truly hope that this a wake up call for all interest in my country, and we having a $5000.00 note now is not a good thing!
Sorry if I stray away from the point abit. I am in pain to see what is happening in JAMAICA.
when is some one with a dam mine of there own going to come out and say reggae/dancehall is not dead and well never be dead the music is going tru changes if u like it roll with it if not sit it out why u think u dont have beenie, vado ,kartel, sean paul saying that crap .its allways some old fool thats stuck in the 70s,80, and 90s and the young new artist them that dont get the real big buss them looking saying that crap or the older artist them that career pop down and cant fine a new hit thats saying that crap or these media outlets in jamaica that never like reggae/dancehall in the first place saying that crap.
Its time for those wish to get into music to go back and study the heritage of it all in Jamaica. Ask the older folks what it meant for them!
Play and listen..REALLY LISTEN to how songs used to to be crafted.
I suspect that one you will find is that they were about peoples stories and experiences..ie they were about reality not fantasy!
Its time for the upcoming artists to give music back to the people of the land!
Excellent subject topic!! but we’ve been silent on this topic for TOO LONG mi fellow Yardies!
As a professional Reggae DJ, I say Big Respect to David Mullings, who hit the nail right on the head…..How much Bob, Peter, Bunny, Jacob Miller, Dennis Brown, Little Roy, Stranjah Cole…etc is played on Jamaican radio for visitors to hear? (coz this is the Reggae that mature tourists know).
Can’t really blame other youths and countries for picking up the Roots music that the bashment generation has rejected. Another reason why the “white man” is cleaning up & collecting nuff $$$ for Reggae shows, while our Reggae veterans are starving.
Personally, I do NOT play bashment or any lyrics that degrade our African Empresses, no matter what the so-called “hype” is. I know it works coz I have the listenership to prove that. I-man ready fi fix di music problem…oonuh ready???
The destruction of our reggae music has been facilated by a few misguided so called educators at the UWI who defend the nastiness and slackness that come out of the mouths of these uneducated artist.They call it our culture but who are the referring to? Certainly getting a mike and shouting that “man fi dead” is not my Jamaican culture.The writings have been on the wall for a long time and journalist like Ian Boyne should be commended for his relentless defense of clean and quality lyrics.Hurraay for the death of gutter music.
You said it all. I Personally would not play lot of these song or so call songs that are been recorded today. most of the selectors and sound systems owners should just break up the CD’S/record when given to them
This behavior of self destruction and culture defamation does not suprise me because this is typical of black people.lets be honest and objective, the race that was blessed with the best property on earth africa, the richest ancesteral heritage,and were physically and mentally constructed to work hard are the lowest on the world,s social status in all arenas except for music and sports.and what do they do destroy there bread and butter just like the youths in the inner city who instead of trying to make the best of what they have they turn on their own neighborhoods and slowly destroy it like cancerous cells.Another example to drive home my point is any time there is leader that arises to elevate black people out off their disgraceful situation because of short sightedness and a host of other negative qualities the oppressors can always find enumerous amount of traitors who are willing to oppose the upliftment of thier own race.So what am saying is the same lack of thought, planning,strategizing,and being steadfast to unity as a means of survival in this harsh world where every race stand by themself. Are the same negative traits that made our people vunerable to be kidnapped from their home land and is the same that is causing black people to loose every thing that those before worked so hard to pass on not jus music think on a larger scale.
[...] Dancehall: who a mash it up? [...]
Did any body learn anything from the deaths of Tupac and Notorious Big ???????????????
We all need to blame ourselves. As we are the ones endorsing the music these guys place on the streets. Honestly, am guilty as charged-as i love me some movado and kartel! however, we need to be rational thinking jamaicans and know what we need for our future country. we just cannot continue on those negative gun music. Honestly, i enjoyed it for awhile but i think these artists are over-doing themselves, and therefore they are removing the essence of musical enjoyment. we need to but a levy on such musical rubbish and negativities we need to stop endorsing it.
Dancehall don’t really exist.
It was just a place where people go
To dance to sound system music
Dancehall is not a form of music
It’s just a place where people go
To dance to sound system music
There was mento, ska, blue beat and rock steady
And then came reggae which came
From the word Streggae meaning a girl.
Streggae was a word used to describe
A very slack girl who is more like a prostitute
But she don’t really charge money for sex
She would give it to any one
And you don’t have to ask
If she like you she is ready to lie with you
Today, they have all kind of rumors about how reggae originated
but they don’t know how much bad things people fabricated
Is dancehall mashing up reggae the answer is yes and yes?
How do I know? Because I was there before dancehall in the beginning
And according to what’s going on now for dancehall its the end
Dancehall mashing up everything in including Jamaica
Each year reggae used to sell by the millions
now according to my full fledge reggae SoundScan understanding
Only five hundred thousand albums sold last year. What a shame
Reggae was the world class music before dancehall came
and remember dancehall can never surpass or replace reggae
Bob Marley say that we should leave all judgement to Jah/god
But we have these fools who think they can rush in
With all this homophobic stuff where even the angels dare
This homophobic message that dancehall portraying can never sell
People don’t want to hear bout no gay business it’s nothing new
And the sooner dancehall understand that Jamaica will be better off
And right now dancehall is certainly missing in action
They don’t know the struggle we have establishing reggae
In the late sixties after rocksteady faded out
And it’s the same way dancehall is fading out now but reggae always survive
The truth is dancehall foundation was billed on sandy ground
Not on a rock like roots rock reggae does all over town
And that is the main reason why it is graduly fading a way
But reggae shall live forever and evermore
It’s the music of the earth and the foundation
That’s why it is played by every single nation
Fools don’t know reggae might not be selling now
But it will bounce back as soon as another Bob Marley comes
And pIck up the slack and put it back on top where it and Jamaica belong.
Beat this!
By;
Mass C
© 2010 Mass C. All Rights Reserved
Dancehall music is a residue of reggae, it is the ashes so to speak. In my estimation it is absolutely limited and very few words compose a dancehall song. Words and or phrase such as de gal, mi gun, dem a fight mi, dem fi dead, da bwoy deh and more useless babble are so played in our rooms and public spaces all these nonsense is automatically etched in the minds of the weak and young ones. people such as kartel, beenie man ninja man who believes that they create the standard that all of us should live by is so wrong but we allow them to dictate useless dialogue to us consistently fed by greedy sound system operators and shady radio disc jockeys. This dancehall nonsense has permeated our society that it is now rivalling dirty politics, DJs are now dons who are also running garrisons like any other criminals, they are assaulting people and extortion appears to have crept into a particular crew.There are also people with phd,s that are hell bent on preserving this neaseating foolishness that they themselves are starting to look ridiculous. I love reggae music but there is this grand conspiracy to trade it for this inferior genre and we must not allow this to happen. Bob marley is twisting in the heavens as a result of this madness and i have one advice to the advocates of this thing, take a page from the reggae book and you greedy djs stop selling the thing short and reinstate parity because not every artist can pay their way to have their music played
@ Clarence as Jamaicans we are here to discuss the issues facing our music we do not care whether there are 300 million people living in the USA or 3Billion if you have nothing to contribute don’t say s**t Just shut up America has worst problems facing right now. And Lets hope your a true American One who’s parents and great, great grand parents are Americans and not and alien ok
For everyone who goes to a session and yells “ray ray” at slack and violent tunes, there are another 50 who stay home to avoid that kind of negativity. The artists are not giving Jamaicans what they truly want, they are catering to a minority that doesn’t know better.
The government has to recognize how profound the influence of Jamaica’s heritage is on the rest of the world, and educate the youth of it’s importance. Jamaica has a lot to be proud about, but it’s a story not being told.
And let’s look a little deeper in to what gets played on the radio, and why. This is another source of misrepresentation that is going on.
Dancehall CAN be nice again, but only if we want it to be. Konshens, thanks for raising this topic, as change starts with mindfulness, then discussion, then action.
uroy,big youth,alkapone,scotty,brigadier,just to name a few were icons of the dancehall and it was these type of dancehall music made dancehall international.these times sadly to say are gone forever the jamaican music really is running agrund and its time we the jamaicans youths realise these sort of unholy type of music are only bringing us in babylon deeper than we think.i wont judge anyone but a lot of these young men deejaying over guns and degrading the women i believe is only for a time and if they live until they are fifty years old most if not all will be ashamed of their selves that they had made foolish contributions to the jamaican society.for those of us who loves real and true cultural dancehall music will either have to start digging up old cassetts and brushing the original 45s and lps off and play them in the comfort of our home.
Trust me, people have had enough of the rubbish!! Why cant we produce great songs like the many famous people who are doing it all over the world? What are we sayng to the world – the best we can produce is about killings?
with more people having access to the internet and cable,we have seen where being jamaican is slowly eroding and as such the culture is not the same as say 20 years ago,sadly most of these new dancehall patrons would have missed the the arrow shirt,pants length clarkes shoes,diamond socks,roll up pants foot,shirt sleeve and of course the gleaner in the back pocket.where begging a dance came with a what u drinking,and of course u had to know how to cool and deadly.danchall isn’t dying,the music is strong the interest and movement is strong all we need to do is to get the leaches some of corporate jamaica out of the thing slow the pace of the music down bring it back to a rent a tile pace where people listen to words and also the rythme,we have not done any dancehall rythmes from 1999 all a this is techno or house music with a jamaican accent,before we pronounce dancehall lets try to revive it, the charge now should go the artiste to be creative get the men and women to (rent back a tile).and finally stop copying what u see on the cable and internet.
THE ARTIST MASH UP THE MUSIC WITH THE GANGS, KILLING RUDENESS ETC. ITS NOT ONLY IN JAMAICA BUT ALSO NEW YORK AND EUROPE. dID ANYONE READ THE NEW YORK VILLAGE VOICE ABOUT THE WAR BY TWO ARTIST SAYING WHO ARE THE BEST THERE IN JAMAICA. wELL THEY WROTE A LOMG ARTICLE ON IT SAYING HOW THIS DISAGREEMENT CAME TO ONE GROUP OF FANS FIGHTING THE OTHER GROUP AND EXPRESS HOW FOOLISH THIS WAS AND THEY SAY EVEN THE GOVERNMENT TRY TO STOP IT. THE WRITER SAID THEY DID NOT KNOW THAT JAMAICAN WERE SO BACKWARD.
ON A TALK SHOW THEY WERE TALKING ABOUT DANCE HALL MUSIC DEMISE BECAUSE THE BAD MESSAGE IT IS SENDING TO THE YOUNG PEOPLE AND THAT NO ONE SHOULD BUY IT. I THINK DANCE HALL MUSIC IS VERY SICK AND THERE IS NO HOPE, EVERYONE PREPARE FOR THE BURIAL.
the gleaner love to promote negativity. they only want to blog about things negative nothing positive. check and see what they allow people to blog about. this colonial mentality of the gleaner must be stopped
THESE PEOPLE AT THE GLEANER ONLY WANT ONE OPINION ONLY. THEY JUST WANT OTHERS LIKE MOST HERE TO SPUR HATE. I KNOW IT WILL BE TAKEN DOWN JUST LIKE MY OTHER POST ABOUT THESE SO CALLED PEOPLE AT THE GLEANER WHO THINK THEY ARE WRITE AND JUST LOVE IT WHEN BLACK PEOPLE HATE ON EACH OTHER. GHETTO YOUTHS ARE MAKING MONEY AND IT JUST KILLING THEM. I AM NOT FOR SLACKNESS BUT THE MUSIC IS CENSORED AND YOU CHOOSE IF YOU WANT TO LISTEN. THESE PEOPLE SIT AND WATCH THEIR PORNOS ON CABLE A NIGHTIME AND ACT LIKE THEY HOLY.
Making money to the demise of the country’s economic and moral prosperity?
Negro … please.
after the king jammys era of the 80es it went down hill , i think that was the best of dancehall…..between 84 and 89
Very thoughtful analysis, Konshens!
It’s amazing how many of the respondents didn’t actually read and digest what was said. Very telling.
The problem of/in dancehall is really the outcome of a series of changes, each linked to the other, feeding the other to produce what we see. So yes, it’s all of the above. Any change in any single dimension that Konshens points out will necessarily change others. That’s why careful and deliberative thought, not just slinging opinions like fowl crap, is necessary to get out of the situation so many young people find themselves in.
For those of you who would rather sit and complain and say that the problem is too big to do anything, or worse yet, find somebody/something else to blame, think again. Wherever you are implicated in any of the problem areas, YOU can do something to change the situation.
well,well when you have the priminister and a few politrictian and a few law men sit down with idiots like vibzcanttell(vibzcartel) and dumbo mavcantdo (mavado or whatever)cant you see what direction that will turn?.before the primeminister tell these idiots without sitting around a powwow camp with them to stop these voilent slangs,its like he and these mascot are friends.way to go mr priminister and your peace preachers,they are totally desrespecting the great music that a lot of loyal jamaican artist and musicians who work so hard to build.these two numb skulls are not the only ones,check out the females also,they dont respect themselfs.JUST LIKE A COMPUTER,YOU INPUT GARBAGE VIA THE KEYBOARD IT WILL SPIT OUT GARBAGE ON THE MONITOR.most of these artist and so call want to be producers are a bunch of numb skull idiots.