Who Murder the Music

So much drama in the industry today it just feels like never ending waves of negative energy seems poised to destroy what so many worked so hard to built. The thing about energy is you get back what you give. That much one would think is common knowledge.

Therefore it would be irresponsible for anyone to pretend that the present miasma of bad news that hovers so thick over the landscape on the verge of suffocating the economic livelihood of those directly and indirectly involved in the industry has nothing to do with the actions of its actors.

For instance Ricky Trooper should be happy that the only visa that got revoked was the one from America. For some reason Jamaicans seem to think that a U. S. visa is a right. We forget that the only country obligated to put up with our nasty behavior no matter what is the one we spit on constantly i.e. Jamaica. Everyday the world gets smaller and markets more competitive. Therefore no matter how drunk Trooper was, waving a gun and demonstrating how bad the affliction of verbal diarrhea affects him on camera would be the definition of career suicide. Recently Trooper was On Stage with Winford Williams saying that’s just another gimmick and the gun was fake or not loaded, whatever. Stating him good wid everybody and everybody good wid him.

Jamaica is the ultimate contradiction. Seriously, look up contradiction in the dictionary and well maybe you wont exactly see a picture of us or a map of Jamaica but it would be a spot on description of how Jamaicans carry-on in almost all aspects of life. For example the image of white sand beaches friendly happy helpful natives in the ultimate island paradise. Jamaica? No problem mon! The Tourist Board sells that image and the tourists eat it up like fat girls at Portland Jerk Festival. But then for those who live here it feels like the murder capital of the universe and any others that may be parallel to us. We kill without explanation like life is a game and you can restart at your last save point, like we are in a civil war, but we are not. And sadly we seem to have become numb to death and injustice.

Now there is another association, a new one that, if left unchecked will destroy an already weakening foundation. The budding idea that the only thing left in Jamaica is homophobic illiterates that at best produce disposable music with the lifespan of a housefly or at worst murder music is taking root. We can hide behind the premise of Art imitating life for so long and no more. We can hide behind the premise of that is what the people want to hear for so long and no more.

We have to be delusional to think that if we saturate the market with the same songs done the same way on recycled riddims that eventually everyone will not simply get sick of hearing them. For example think of any two recent riddims. I’ll now do a magic trick and name all the songs on the riddims you thought of. Here goes:

1. People badmind.

2. Gal yuh baddy good and yuh can keep yuh man wid yuh good hole and yuh man mine yuh because yuh hole good.

3. Dash out yuh hole……………

4. Lies about oral sex, sex in general.

5. Mi have more money than that nigga and mi can floss and hype more than them too.

6. Mi want money.

7. Some stupid song that passes off as a dance anthem when in fact there is no ‘dance’ just an excuse for a group of long seed man to bleach their faces wear tight pants pink close fitting shirts jump on each other’s ass and pretend that they are not latent homos.

8. Mi have the most gal, I know nothing of sex, love or how to treat a good woman right but mi a galis.

9. And if a rasta man is there mi love jah and jah love me, Selassie I.

There I just named all the local songs that ever made it to radio and in the dance. Give or take a very very few exceptions.

Clearly drastic changes need to be made as unfortunately for us, our music has as much worldwide appeal as a used tampon. Further more it will not be fixed with the projection of domestic violence, sad attempts at a porn career and constant infighting for what is perceived as scarce benefits by the narrow minded. It cannot be that the doors slammed shut after Shaggy and Sean Paul. It cannot be that it is their phennotypical features that attributes to their success. It cannot only be parental legacies why the Marley’s constantly sell out venues and win international awards.

The music is more potent than the weed we… they smoke and the blood sweat and determination of our predecessors for it to be classified as garbage instead of doing what it is suppose to which is positively affecting the world. So called artists and producers need to get off their lazy asses and make something of value every once in a while. Stop claiming that the business was destroyed over night and you had nothing to do with it.

But what do I know? And no one who should will read this anyway.

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