Entertainment » Dancehall: who a mash it up? : A Jamaica Gleaner Blog

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?”

ESTEBAN AGOSTO REID says:

April 5, 2010 at 7:12 am

Dancehall is nothing more than the commodification of filth by Jamaican illiterates and sociopaths !!
jontan says:

April 6, 2010 at 3:19 am

true say we need more positive vybz. a bare negativity man a promote inna dancehall. but still, people on dis page are denying dat dey like it, when mi know say wen tune come on dem a bruk foot
TomianGyal says:

April 6, 2010 at 9:35 am

Dancehall mash up NOW…. The new developments about Cancelled Visas of 5 artiste is a wake up call to Jamaicans that people ain’t feeling Jamaica and it’s music again…..What ever happen to the ole time dancehall reggae without the violence!!!
Chris says:

April 7, 2010 at 9:34 am

Dance Hall music is trash. This type of music caused one to dress in a deragitory manner, Behave violently, filt the air waves with lude, crude and undesirable lyrics.
Its a culture riffled with vulgarity and defimation of our common culture.

No wonder one of our caribbean countres banned this music/artist from their country.
farofa says:

April 8, 2010 at 4:25 pm

Rasrude
“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”

Good things don’t go, they are always around somewhere – a tradition in Brazil:
realistic person says:

May 3, 2010 at 4:31 pm

for all who are saying dancehall mash up are just stupid,dancehal is an evolving music,it has good n it has bad.which music in the world is all good,not one,because nobody is perfect n of course the music will not be perfect.@CHRIS. how can you say that,dancehall gave way for rap/hiphop to be formed which the world loves to listen.@TOMIANGYAL. dancehall is not mash up,visa beeing cancelled does not means ntn,because one r two country ban dancehall dont mean crap,the rest of the world loves dancehall n jamaica,if people didnt care about jamaican why has tourisim up 3 folds.n violence has been apart of dancehall it was the marketing companies that only pushed the happy part of dancehall,there is also the real part of it,if yu didnt know dancehall came from di poor people of jamaica,dat is their way of saying wat they feel.@ ESTEBAN,ARE YOU TELLING ME THAT WAT EVER COUNTRY YOU COME FROM DONT HAVE FILTH,ILLITERATES N SOCIOPATHS,YOUR ARE JUST A RACIST.some of yall might want dancehall to die out but it will never die out as long as there are poor n poverty jamaicans on this planet.
Rick Styles says:

May 30, 2010 at 9:22 am

Dancehall has hit a low point at the moment but all music genres go through this. In the US, rock music is quietly resting for now but it has sold hundreds of millions in earlier years. Hip Hop seems to be the leading music right now but lyrically, it is as bad as dancehall because it reflects the hard times black people face in the US ghettos.
Society is really bad worldwide right now and people are losing the inspiration to make fun music. Be positive, it will come back bigger, later!
Peace to y’al!!