Reggae Icon Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry Not Impressed With Burning Spear Taking The Jab
The news that Rastafarian Reggae singer Burning Spear has taken the COVID-19 vaccine has not gone down well with iconic Reggae music producer, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry.
“Can somebody mek mi overstand and explain what is the meaning of what Burning Spear is doing (got vax) and some other so-called Rasta man dem?🔥’ Perry demanded to know on Wednesday evening.
The Grammy award winner made his consternation clear under a video post made by Spragga Benz on Instagram, of Emperor Haile Selassie speaking in his palace garden in Addis Ababa about courage, in which the Ethiopian noted that “even in this 21st century, with faith, courage and a just cause, David will still defeat Goliath”.
Perry’s comments came after news surfaced that Burning Spear has reportedly taken the jab in New York, an action that is in stark contrast to the stance of the I am a Mad Man singer who has not only dismissed any notion of taking the COVID-19 vaccine, but questioned the ‘uprightness’ of Rastas who are accepting inoculation.
The Slavery Days artist who retired from touring in June 2016, was captured in a photograph being injected with his second dose of the vaccine by a military medic, which was posted on Twitter by New York City-based radio disc jockey and independent Reggae promoter Amy Wachtel, also known as the Night Nurse, on Monday.
The six-time Grammy nominee’s decision is contrary to that of Perry, who declared in late February, that he would not take the COVID-19 vaccine and as a consequence will opt to stop doing live shows, if vaccination becomes mandatory for international travel.
The Calling Rastafari artist’s actions are also dissimilar to the stance of Rastafarian artists including Buju Banton, Spragga Benz, Tony Rebel, Queen Ifrica, Chronixx, Kabaka Pyramid, and Sizzla Kalonji, who has labeled the vaccine “The Babylon Curse”.
Perry, who is a native of Hanover, has also questioned the integrity of people purporting to be Rastafarians who have been encouraging others to get vaccinated and wear masks, which in his eyes are part of the “Babylonian system”.
“But there is something I’m wondering about: isn’t Rasta supposed to stand for freedom, against slavery and against Babylon system? How comes that some of them calling themselves Rasta are promoting exactly that system by telling people to maskup and get the shot, while we should know what that means?” Perry had noted.
Over the last week, Sizzla has been encouraging Jamaicans, including the Governor-General, Prime Minister Andrew Holness, and all other politicians, to refuse to take the vaccine as it was designed with bad intentions.
In the meantime, Perry, who turned 85 last weekend, says that he is full of vim, vigor and vitality, and feels like a man who just turned 40, and has no plans to retire any time soon, and that God gives him “power every hour”.
“I have been well, me escape the devil. I turn 80-something and don’t look like that, me look much younger than that, and feel younger than that,” he had told The Gleaner newspaper.
“Well, the Lord give me a long, life sentence; right now, I feel like forty, and if I live to 500 years, I will still do music… As long as me live, I am taking the music to a higher level because my music has no end, and it make you feel happy, turn you on and put you to bed … is total sex, I tell you,” he added.
The Upsetta also said that he was getting some well-needed rest and was eating healthily and doing push-ups and “normal exercises, which is like sexy art”.
“I am eating right, only vegetables, carrot soup, co-co soup and callaloo soup – all types of soup – fishes sometimes, but God tell me not to eat dead flesh because what we give is what we get; so if we eat dead flesh, we inherit dead flesh. And start to say, well, Our Father prayer,” he told The Gleaner on the weekend.
In the Gleaner interview, Perry also had also spoken about the COVID-19 vaccine, noting that he was in fact “waiting for messages from the spirits”.
“I don’t know what the Government here seek, or what the Americans or the English seek, or why they want to interfere with Jamaica’s inheritance. But anything happens, is that God want to happen,” he said.
“I have to ask somebody over me, who is my spiritual leader and the spirits. If the Black Jesus say to take it, I will take it because I believe in the Black Jesus,” he added, noting that he was torn between Switzerland, which is a nice place with no thieves, and his beloved Jamaica.