hate lyrics in dancehall

[twentyHz]

As someone who loves & supports reggae music, and stands against all forms of hate & discrimination, i thought i'd do my part to help shed some light on the growing climate of extreme homophobia in Dancehall music. I'm sure most of you have heard about Beenie Man's situation, with tour dates being cancelled left & right due to protests from gay rights groups... but it goes a lot deeper than that. Here's an article that explains the situation in a little more detail.

http://www.glaad.org/media/resource_...il.php?id=3718

I am a firm believer in freedom of speach and would never deny these artists their right to speak their mind. I find it heartbreaking & utterly bewildering, however, that a music that has so long embodied the struggle for human rights has turned around and embraced hate so easily. Some of these artists (usually when faced with the possibility of breaking into the much larger US & global market) will deny that their lyrics are directed towards gays ('chi chi just means a bad person, not gay')... but using language that can easily be interpreted that way in a country where homosexuality is a crime, and people are routinely murdered because of their sexuality, shows an extreme lack of sensitivity at the very least. In truth though, most of these lyrics just can not be passed of as metaphorical - they are advocating the murder & torture of gay people, straight up.

Homophobia in music is nothing new to me, for years i've picked up on anti-gay sentiments in hip hop music... although it has reduced a lot over the years, and even at it's worst never came close to the overt promotion of violence depicted in much of today's dancehall. None of this will make me stop supporting the music that i love, but i do feel it's important to get this info out there so that those among us who are concerned about human rights & equality can make our own decisions about which artists to support. With the exception of Buju, i've never been a big fan of any of the listed artists, so it won't make a big difference to the records i buy & play... although i'm now regretting including the Capleton track 'Execute' on my 'Along For The Ride' mixtape, as that song is ALL ABOUT murdering gays. Future copies of the mix will be edited in some way, hopefully to include a message of love & acceptance over the 'magic stick' beat instead of Capleton's hate filled rant.

anyways, that's how i feel about it.... read the article & discuss.

[Wood]

^that was me btw, F%$#^% work computer

[Bobby_T]

Your contribution to our urban music scene doesn't go without appreciation. It great to see conscious effort to relay a message (or not to, in this case) from a dj.

Thank you.

[Niko]

It's great that you're supporting Dancehall the way you are, since that's about the only chance for the acceptable climate of the music to change. By promoting the best parts of the genre, you can prove that it's not about what some people have made it. It's damn good music.

I'm really glad that some people still put a lot of thought into ethics on multiple levels, and are actually doing their little parts to make the world a better place.


[[That response may have been too plurry.]]

[Senior]

That's pretty fucked up, I've never really listened to the lyrics of dance hall and had no idea that's what they're talking about. The NY Times article is really quite disturbing saying among other things that if a dance hall artist can't make a hit single they'll just fall back on a homophobic message to to get popular, much the same as the sex sells theory.

Not knowing much about the genre though I wonder is this isolated or are the majority of the artists out there so hateful?

[angst]

The majority of reggae/dancehalll artists are not hateful, but recently the focus has been on the artists that are. Why do you think that is? Why is black music (hip hop and dancehall) continually being targeted?

Now personally I don't agree with content of many dancehall tunes however, it is important to understand that many reggae artists are religious and truly believe that to be gay is to be against god. Christians/Muslims/Jews/Rasta's ALL know that God has forbid homosexual activity. This attitude towards gays is cultural and has manifested itself over many years in Jamaica. Even though I do not agree with this message, people must have the right to say anything they want, regardless of what any of us think about it. To censor art in a democracy is to challenge notions of freedom of speach, freedom of thought, privacy, hate crimes/literature laws, sex & obscenity laws, morality in a given country's statutes, minority & gay rights protections, human rights, artistic freedom, etc. etc.

Here is a recent statement that I have recently read that I tend to agree with "In reality, REALITY.......gay bashing & anti homosexual violence is not a substantial problem. When it occurs, people responsible should be punished. There is no reason to be regulating speech."

[Wood]

i'd agree that there's a history of black musicians being persecuted for racist reasons, but with the dancehall problem i'm not so sure that's the case. I can't think of another genre of music where the top selling, award winning artists blatantly call for the murder or gays (or any other minority group) in their lyrics. Incitement of murder is a crime in most countries, and i believe that what these singers are doing could be considered incitement. Whatever their intentions, that is the effect that it has on a segment of their audience.

I can't agree that anti-gay violence isn't a substantial problem, if anything it's part of a larger problem - descriminatory violence caused by hatred. That's one of the most substantial problems faced by humanity. AFAIC, if you advocate one kind of hate, you're advocating all kinds of hate, which makes these guys no better than klansmen or nazis. Is religion a justification for murder or torture, or even advocating it? not to me it isn't. Religious people around the world have learned to accept many things that may not have once been accepted by their faith, because history has taught us that acceptance is better than the viscious cycle of hatred & violence.

that said, i also don't believe that regulation of speech is the answer. The answer is education, and as someone who supports the music i feel it's my responsibility to make sure the audience knows what they're hearing. With reggae music being sung in Jamaican patois, most people in our culture don't understand the lyrical content, so these violent messages can easily slip by unchecked. as i said above, i just feel it's important for people to KNOW, so they can make their own decision from there.

[angst]

^^^ Agreed.

It always amazes me to see people play and dance to "boom bye bye" I've had to mention to more than 1 Dj what they song is about. Most of em had no clue. Part of the problem, which you already mentioned, is that people don't understand patois. Therefore the message is not comprehended and processed. Education and understanding is most definitely the key to changing people's attitudes on homosexuality. Since most of these artists are uneducated and were raised in some of the poorest ghettos on the planet, it is easy to see how their negative attitudes towards homosexuals came to be. Most people fear and/or hate what they do not understand. Combine that with a religion telling them it's evil, you get a society that shuns and is often violent towards gays.

As more of the bigger dancehall artists are booked for international gigs, they will find that their "gay bashing" songs will not be tolerated by the international community. Capleton, Beanie Man and Sizzla have all had gigs cancelled because gay rights groups exerted enough pressure to prevent them from playing. If these artists want to achieve success on an international scale, then they will have to change waht they sing about. Remember Shabba Ranks? After spewing off a bunch of anti gay propaganda on BET (i think) his career was practially ruined.

What I find disappointing is that the focus seems to be on the negative dancehall tunes and not the positive ones. There are way more songs with positive messages.

[Wood]

Originally Posted by angst

What I find disappointing is that the focus seems to be on the negative dancehall tunes and not the positive ones. There are way more songs with positive messages.

i'd imagine that's because the artists with that message in their lyrics aren't exactly on the fringe of the genre - it's some of the best selling reggae artists. TOK, Vybez, Beenie are all SUPER hot right now, and they're getting awards nominations and huge festival bookings. If they were fringe artists with no audience outside of jamaica, i'm sure it wouldn't be an issue.

[angst]

Ahhh, but many of these artists in question do have songs that have positive messages. From what I've read, TOK is moving away from songs like "Chi Chi Man," so maybe they realized that in order to be internationally successful, they couldn't continue to preach hate and negativity. I'd love to continue this discussion, but seeing as how no one else but us seems to care about this issue, there doesn't seem to be much point in going on.