Ian Boyne, Contributor
THE PUBLIC'S revulsion, disgust and raging anger at the gunman-terrorist is showing no signs of let up, and the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica's protest succeeded in getting the two political leaders to pull their Members of Parliament (MPs) kicking and screaming against their forced public pledge to shun the gunman.
Everywhere in Jamaica the gunman, or 'shotta', is under fire. Except in the dancehall. The dancehall remains the one space in which the gunman has honour, recognition and 'ratings'. In the dancehall it is no shame to be a gunman. Indeed, you have pride of place there. When one giggling female at a prominent gunman's funeral was recently featured on the front page of a newspaper with a wreath in the shape of an M-16, polite society was shocked and astounded at this perversion of values, but to those who know the dancehall that was nothing unusual.
OBLIGATORY BIG-UPS
The dancehall is the place where gunmen and dons are toasted and touted, where they get their obligatory big-ups and shout-outs. Let me make it clear that this is not all that the dancehall is about. There are positive elements in dancehall and not all dancehall artistes glorify violence. But the link between dancehall and the criminal underworld cannot be denied and the defenders of dancehall culture in this country have done us a tremendous disservice by their failure to critique negative dancehall, and by their reflexive apology for the promoters of criminality in the dancehall.
The promotion of criminality in our music has been with us for some time, but because corporate companies were making big bucks from some of these well-known deejays, and profit is sacrosanct, they turned a blind eye to their 'informer fi dead', 'People dead', 'bore bwoy skull' lyrics. Only the power of the gay lobby forced them to pay attention to some values beyond money-making.
CRIME AND MUSIC
The private sector has to put its house in order at the same time that it is demanding that the politicians do something concrete to isolate the gunman. By promoting artistes who promote criminals, artistes who glorify nihilistic violence, the corporate sponsors of dancehall shows featuring these artistes are contributing to the culture of criminality in the country. If the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition have to show some guts and leadership in insisting that their MPs fall in line in this all-out war with criminal elements, then the PSOJ must demand that its members not support dancehall events which feature artistes who use violent lyrics.
The uncritical defenders of dancehall have a set of fallacious arguments which they routinely trot out and which any sophomore philosophy student who can get a C for her critical thinking paper can convincingly demolish. The uncritical defender starts by noting that the artiste who glorifies violence is merely reflecting the injustices, inequities and the dehumanisation of his environment. He is merely a reflector. He did not create the conditions that he is singing about, nor is he responsible for alleviating them. The politicians and the 'society people' created the inhumane conditions and the lack of opportunities which produced the violence-promoting deejays, and then middle class hypocrites like Ian Boyne want to further victimise the innocent victims.
Would the problems in the society disappear if we got rid of all the violence-promoting deejays?
The answer is simple. While it is true that the largely uneducated, under-socialised (in mainstream values) youth who constitute the core of deejays? are not responsible for their dehumanising conditions, their lyrics reinforce and strengthen the negatives of their environment.
A youth oppressed by the ruling class, starved of opportunities, stigmatised as belonging to a 'worthless good for nothing' class; stereotyped as a criminal, actually participates in his own oppression. He aids the oppressor class by spouting lyrics which reinforce the prejudices toward ghetto people and which besmirch the majority of decent people who live in the inner city.
Besides, when cooperation, harmony, compromise and forgiveness are values which promote the interests of all human beings - not just middle class people - and you have youth singing that people's skulls should be filled with bullets because of the slightest dissing, how does that help inner-city people? When hundreds are dying -- not mainly people who look like Mr. Azan or in the class of Dr. Bernard Benjamin - but poor ghetto people because of inter-community warfare and grievances, how does music which incites vengeance, scoffs at the overlooking of offences be in the interests of the ghetto?
MUSIC INDUSTRY MUST FOLLOW
By excusing and not lifting up one's voice loudly against the violence in the music, one is actually aiding the destruction of precious human lives in the inner cities. The polemic against violence in the music is a defence of inner-city people. At the recent 10 giants concert with gun hawk Ninjaman, a number of the deejays openly spoke out against the increasing violence in Jamaica. The polemical attacks against criminality are having an effect and a cascade is developing. The anti-violence movement is gaining critical mass. The private sector has been forced to come on board, the politicians are constrained to join the bandwagon and the music industry will have to follow suit, too.
Talking a lot of crap and making a whole lot of excuses for uncivilised behaviour and violent lyrics take us nowhere. It is a patronizing and literally dehumanising view that these inner-city youth are really mindless automatons 'beyond freedom and dignity' (to quote the well-known Behaviourist BF Skinner) who can't help but reflect their conditions. "I show respect to them because I am rejecting the determinism which says they can't help themselves. I am saying they have brains and they can use them to resist the negatives and chart a positive course for their liberation."
A lot of middle class people reading this don't know how chilling the violence-promoting lyrics are because they don't go to the dancehall and don't live in inner-city areas where decent people are assaulted with this stuff almost 24 hours a day. The worst songs are not played on the radio stations which are themselves very liberal and loose in what they allow on the air.
The other point which is usually made is that Bob Marley had violent lyrics, too, and other artistes who have gained respectability were no angels. They miss the point. While I am a pacifist, there is a crucial difference between revolutionary violence to end oppression and the kind of nihilistic violence which characterises dancehall shotta glorification. Don't come with any sleight-of-hand with me. I am not talking about artistes chanting against oppression, exploitation and injustice. What is glorified in the dancehall is the shotta who can pump 'head shots' to homosexuals, to police informers, to assorted enemies, to guys who want to tek weh dem woman.
These lyrics ridicule youth who don't have big guns; youth who have not killed a lot of people. The dancehall is the place where the shotta, who has no education, no middle class connections, no colour credentials, no good looks and no uptown address, can come and feel honoured and celebrated for the sheer power of his gun and his savagery. In a society which has not created enough legitimate opportunities for recognition, honour and respect-which all human beings crave the shotta gets all that through his mastery of the big gun and his reputation for dog-heart wickedness.
So, while in mainstream society, the gunman (shotta) is despised, seen as vomit and waste, in the dancehall he is celebrated as hero, as Kingpin, as God, not the devil, for he decides whether you live or die. I agree with my critics: If as a society we eliminated the conditions which lead people to see what Professor Obika Gray calls 'Badness-honour' as the way to get respect, then we would reduce crime. It is not the music which is the root cause of the crime in the society. It's the dehumanising exploitation and unjust conditions which exist in the society, the neglect of the poor and marginalised which constitute the crime factories.
I am pleased that Kingsley 'Ragashanti' Stewart has been now speaking out clearly against negative dancehall lyrics. The asinine view that if you criticize violent lyrics in dancehall you are against 'the people's culture' and are expressing 'middle class snobbery' must be seen for what it is. I am saying than Bounty Killer, Assassin, Beenie Man, Vybz Kartel, Sizzler, Bling Dawg, Kip Rich are talented and versatile enough to do pulsating, chart-stomping hits without the negativity. We must not try to destroy them but must use our influence to lead them to see the error of their ways and how their work is negatively impacting ghetto people. Bogle is dead today through foolishness and 'almshouse'.
HIT THEM WHERE IT HURTS
The private sector must burn the violence-promoting deejays in their pockets and make it clear to them that they can get the support if they support peace and love. If not, they are not going to get sponsorships and endorsements. These guys are materialistic. They will cooperate for the money. The media must not big up and glorify the artistes who promote violence.
We are not promoting 'the people's culture' when we in the media promote artistes who incite youth and youth to kill one another over trivial or even major offences. When we need intelligence to put away criminals who are killing our six-year-olds, shooting up buses with school children, killing old ladies and women with babies in their hands, we can't be backing songs glorifying the M-16, the AK 47, the SLR. We need 'informers' to put these wretches away. It is those of us who are crying and sighing for the abominations in the ghetto-in all forms, including from the politicians and the big private sector man-who are the real friends of the inner city.
Ian Boyne is a veteran journalist. You can send your comments to ianboyne1@yahoo.com or infocus@gleanerjm.com
