Ian BoyneIT IS time that the radio disc jockeys 'free up' and release the hard-core gospel deejays whom they have imprisoned in Sunday morning slots marked 'gospel music'. These rhythmically potent artistes have been held captive by these radio jocks' ignorance and, in some cases, greed.
But I don't want to alienate these powerful and influential radio jocks who hold the keys of life and death to many artistes' career, so let me use gentle language and reasoning. It is not hard for me to make the case. Why is it that Rastafarian deejays who are hailing up King Selassie I and praising His Majesty, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, are played throughout the day and night and when Christian hard-core deejays use the same rhythms, have the same sound and the same arrangement their music is shunted aside as 'gospel music'?
Guys and ladies, get with the programme: We have passed the days of Otis Wright, Jim Reeves, Pat Boone and the Kings Herald Quartet. We are now in the era of gospel roots reggae groups such as Katalys Crew who can rival any such Rastafarian or 'worlian' groups today. You who are radio jocks need to know more about the music business and get out of your little ghettoes. There is no reason to hold back the guys with the revolutionary lyrics, the people "bunning fire" pon Babylon with lyrics against oppression, victimisation, political tribalism, racism etc. Get an album of Katalys Crew and educate yourselves. It's your business, so you should know it.
UPHOLDING VALUES
You my colleagues in the media who have the important position of spinning music and influencing the musical taste of the Jamaican people, do you know about a Christian artiste by the name of Goddy Goddy? Do you know about Bless, formerly Prodigal Son? These are hard-core ghetto youth, one of whom was a gang member from Rema. Goddy Goddy was known as Snakeman and used to be a writer for King Yellowman in his pre-conversion days. He used to deejay slackness and gun lyrics.
He still has the hard-core, guttural sound, but now his lyrics are clean and uplifting, upholding universal values. And this is another significant point: The gospel dancehall deejays are not just singing about sweet Jesus, going to
heaven, going to church on Sunday and reading the Bible and praying every day.
They are speaking about social issues, about things affecting the ordinary people, about inner-city life, things which are upsetting people. They are singing reality music. Any theme you can pull from Bascom X, Warrior King, Gyptian, Junior Kelly, Chuck Fenda, I-Wayne, Damian Marley and Richie Spice you can get from Bless, Matthew (a hot rising gospel deejay), Moses, Jason Mighty, Katalys Crew and Goddy Goddy.
The problem is that unlike the secular artistes who know how to get around to the radio jocks and who move in the same circles as they do, the gospel dancehall artistes don't move in the same universe with the announcers and radio jocks. And these radio jocks don't generally go to gospel concerts. They watch developments in gospel music from afar. Sure they know about the new Papa San and Stitchie but they are not paying attention to their songs which speak to everyday realities.
CHRISTIANITY AND CULTURE
There is one area in Jamaica in which Christians have been making a noteworthy impact on the culture and that is in music. The Christian church in Jamaica has suffered serious and fatal reversals. The influence which the Sunday school movement used to have is all but gone. Fewer and fewer people are being socialised by the church. The dancehall has taken over as a main socialising agent for many of our youth, not just in the working class.
The influence of Christians in the media is fading and much electronic media programming reflects not just secular but in many cases anti-Christian values. The church's influence on social institutions, including the school, has declined. Intellectually, while the church in the past wielded significant influence, today secularist and humanist perspectives dominate and the Christian intellectuals have retreated behind the four walls of the church preaching to an increasingly secularised pew. It is disconcerting how the church has lost influence and relevance in Jamaica.
But there is one area and one segment of the church that has potently engaged the culture and the society and that is the area of music led by Christian youth. The Christians have wisely and strategically exploited the dancehall genre to present a powerful counter-cultural force to the secular forces. It is interesting that while the middle-class leadership of the church has abdicated its responsibilities for leadership of the society, and while the theologians are busy talking to themselves in arcane language and answering questions nobody is asking in 2005, it has been the largely undereducated working class youth in the Jamaican church who are taking the fight to the 'worlians' and the secularists.
Dancehall music, which has contributed to the country's declining values and attitudes but which holds a magnetic and hypnotic force over the youth and many adults is being turned on its heads in the service of liberation by the Christian deejays. Some of the most powerful lyrics against values holding back poor black people are being spouted by the Christian deejays, with tremendous effect.
The gospel concerts now are pulling in more crowds than some dancehall events. On any Saturday night you can find Christians rocking to the latest beat on many church grounds, having an absolutely rapturous time in the Lord, as they would put it: Not missing a beat rhythmically, but not conceding one thing to dirty, degrading lyrics which insult our women, marginalise our men and which promote violence against ghetto youth. Music for liberation and upliftment: This is the music you are not hearing on the radio because the radio jocks are not playing it. I say, free up the Christian deejays now!
CORPORATE SPONSORS
AND THE CHURCH
The business people, the big corporate sponsors who have spent their money promoting gun hawk deejays just because they are famous and can sell products and services have an obligation to this society to make reparations by now helping to bring back the society through the sponsorship of clean, uplifting and positive lyrics by Christian and Rastafarian deejays who are turning their face against the galloping violence and anarchy in the society.
A very important symbolic event took place recently: At Jesus 2005, former giants in the dancehall, Culture Kings, Charlie Chaplin and Brigadier Jerry appeared on the same stage with Christian deejays such as Bless and others. This is a natural synergy. Rastafarians and Christians share many of the same values and they are both against the decadence of the dancehall, the projection of our women as whores and objects of men's fantasy and sexual exploitation. They are against the promoting of North American materialistic values, Babylonian values of greed and materialism. They are against bling bling obsession, against the measuring of people's worth by their bank accounts and possessions.
Rastafarians and Christians are opposed to the downpression by the big man against the little man. They are opposed to injustice, discrimination, political trickery and manipulation and the use of the poor by politicians for their Satanic ends.
I am overjoyed to see the resurgence of the dreads in the dancehall. This is encouraging more youth to start singing cultural, reality music, reigniting the cultural heritage of our music which was hijacked by Babylon with the acquiescence of some misguided and myopic intellectuals from the University of the West Indies as well as some ghetto youth blinded by Babylon's values.
The downpressors were glad when black ghetto youth were singing about "skin out bruk out", under gal frock, matey etc. They were and are glad when ghetto youth are glorifying violence, the Glock, the AK, the SLR, the M-16 and the Matic because that plays into their script for keeping black people at war and divided while they reap the sweets.
I am happy to see the dreads commanding attention from the radio jocks; overjoyed at the success of Rebel Salute and every show where the dreads turn out to address the people's real concerns about oppression and its sources rather than sing songs glorifying war and conflict. The business sector must support these Rastafarian artistes along with the Christian deejays, for if this society is to be redeemed it can't be done primarily by columnists like me writing long articles which the masses have no interest in reading, or by giving speeches to service clubs or, worse, by having politicians give admonitions or special address to the nation.
To reach the people you have to reach them through their culture, and the idiom of the dancehall is the most effective vehicle. Those foolish and unreflective Christians who feel gospel dancehall is a sell-out to the world don't begin to understand that this is the vehicle through which Christian values can be communicated to the masses and to a generation severely in need of remediation. Business people, put your money behind the dancehall artistes bringing a positive message. Use them in your campaigns, not the gun hawks and those whose performances incite violence and mayhem.
Christian dancehall deejays have come of age. They are professional and proficient. Radio jocks, free them up. Listen to their lyrics. If you play Fantan Mojah and Warrior King, why not Bless, Goddy Goddy and Nicholas?
The Government should be seeing how it can put serious money behind these artistes if they are serious about rescuing this country from the social rot evident to all of us. You can't just fix the physical infrastructure while the moral infrastructure is collapsing all around.
Free up the Christian deejays now!
Ian Boyne is a veteran journalist. You can send your comments to ianboyne1@yahoo.com or
infocus@gleanerjm.com
