Dancehall Dubplates On The Campaign Trail Come At A Price

The recent influx of Dancehall dubs on the campaign trail by political hopefuls from both sides of the divide in Jamaica brings into focus the place and duty of Dancehall. It was just last year that a group of young professional lawyers to be, were chastised and told that their favorite art form was not worthy of an Instagram post.

An attorney, Peter Champagnie, is quoted in the press as saying that he “enjoys all genres of music, but there is a time and a place for everything”. This after the Mona Law School posted a few pictures of women dressed in old-school Dancehall regalia. It is interesting how the still images immediately were associated with a genre of music according to the learned attorney’s statement.

The Gleaner quoted Champagnie as saying: “What is particularly offensive about it (the pictures) is that they are for public display. It is not a private viewing page, and it is associated with persons who would wish to join what I still consider a noble and respectable profession.”

Subsequently, he said that he would be pulling out of a prior commitment with the law society.

Based on this reasoning from the learned attorney, Dancehall has no place aligning publicly with the respectable students of the university — who will be members of the noble profession.

The young students at the MLS are part of an emerging young, innovative, and creative class. Their inspiration comes from elements in the immediate environment. Their innocent optimism and hope of creating using Dancehall up to that time, was yet to be corrupted by cynicism.

For most of the Jamaican creative youth, their reason for creating stems from a universal humane desire for a better life. Likewise, the young dancehall artistes’ most pressing need is to make money so that they can give themselves and their families a fair economic base. This is no different from any of the children studying law. All the examples in our environment, and in the capitalist-based schools, point to this as an ideal.

Dancehall is part-facilitated dialogue, part performance, part commercial activity, and celebration. Dancehall serves as a powerful means of articulating social issues and should be understood as a cultural milieu through which Jamaica’s social, judicial, and political ideologies are processed.

On the contrary, many politicians have drafted and supported policies in the past that suppress the art form. Many have made anti-dancehall statements and insinuated that Dancehall causes crime. Dancehall is still being censored in many quarters of Jamaica, including on stage.

There is a list of words dancehall artists use for added effects that are banned and an even longer list of dancehall songs that can’t be played on public air. Dancehall is still referred to as noise in the noise abatement act, which specifically targets the playing of music after 2:00 am in Jamaica.

The statements made by Champagnie, the polices, and censorship have been discouraging the progress of Dancehall. Jamaicans whose daily experiences and dress codes are similar to the law students mentioned above, identify with the dancehall themes. They are constantly under attack for their fashion and their culture.

Dancehall has the ability to be a vehicle of artistic and academic achievement. It encompasses the math and magic of our society. Indeed many artists, producers, designers, dancers, and promoters wouldn’t have found wealth and personal progress had it not been for Dancehall.

Dancehall’s value, however, should not only be recognized for its ability to make money and win elections, but the songs and movements ought to be viewed as an opportunity to experience an intellectual awakening across society.

With Dancehall being the most popular form of youth expression in Jamaica, we should respect its use as a tool for higher education, political and social awareness, as well as for facilitating humanist civil advocacy.

Most of the current dancehall dubplates on the political campaigns aren’t making political statements but rather political endorsements. Whenever Dancehall makes political statements, as in the case of Bounty Killer’s Anytime and Baby Cham’s Ma People, it is banned. It would do politicians and social engineers well, to view Dancehall as a complex art form and lifestyle that requires the attention, research, and development of all its components to better serve the growing democracy.

It is a wonder that, after so many years, and the valuable contributions of Dancehall, there is still the need to remind leaders, lawyers, church-goers, and politicians of its value to solve complex problems in Jamaica.

We need some new ways of thinking.

Dancehall and other youthful expressions are necessary to push boundaries and encourage new ways of thinking. Dancehall should be used to celebrate, as well as lament, the Jamaican condition, and it cannot be silenced. Any suggestions, commissions, or imposed austerity or ban from the airwaves, or on social media pages of high-society organizations should be rejected. In fact, it is often when banned from public discourse that Dancehall’s heinous lyrics and unexplained intentions thrives and finds its way into conservative homes.

Dancehall shares an ancestral language that Jamaican politicians use when necessary to increase communication with their constituents. As such, dancehall artistes continue to help socially awkward politicians with their cool factor to win elections. Jamaica, therefore, needs leadership at the highest levels of the judiciary and heads of government who will rally for the value of the popular post-colonial youth expression. We need leaders who will be capable of using Dancehall and its communicative powers towards more social good and to turn the disenfranchised into geniuses in fashion, design, writing, and even law.

As a teacher, I found that Dancehall could be used to increase the literacy levels of all my students from various socio-economic backgrounds.

Regardless of class, age, education, political or religious conditioning, we all want to see a better nation for the future. It is vitally important to find a common approach, a common solution, to a common problem that will not leave segments of the society isolated after the elections are won.

The streets that Dancehall occupies are idealised by the youth as an authentic cultural zone, where love and communal affiliation collide with other, more threatening situations. Politicians should not use it and then cast it aside.

If Dancehall is good enough to help elect lawyer politicians, it is good enough to exist in law schools.

Never again should it be said that Dancehall is holding back the nation or disgracing organizations and causing crime. It is the lack of empathy, care, and guidance for the youth, and especially young women and girls that is holding back the nation’s progress and reducing nobility. Not giving Dancehall the same graces we afford other cultures and religions also hold us back.

No more pontificating and shaming Dancehall whenever political leadership on social issues comes into question. Dancehall has its deviants but those who gain success from and enjoy it will tell you that within Dancehall’s core values are principles of prosperity, leadership, discipline, character, progressive and balanced self-assessment.

Collective Bargaining

As for the artists who don’t want to participate in the “dubs for money” campaign, they could make a more significant statement by exercising their collective bargaining powers.  Demand from policymakers what is needed in exchange for dubs and endorsements. Have them publicly declare their support for new innovative policies and hold them accountable when elected.

That is the true value of a dancehall dub as Dancehall builds trust and accountability for itself and in the leaders.

JR Watkis is a film director, TV host, and music industry consultant. Send comments to the worldmusicviews@gmail.com or @jrworldmusicv on Twitter.