Jamaican PM Makes Promises After Popcaan’s Request For Investment In Dancehall

It seems that Popcaan’s very soft approach to Prime Minister Andrew Holness in requesting that he invest money in Dancehall has found favor with the Head of Government and members of the Jamaican Cabinet.

On April 8, in a very diplomatic stance and a far cry from the stridency of some of his Dancehall counterparts, Popcaan had tweeted a message asking the Prime Minister to invest in Dancehall.  The Numbers Don’t Lie singer assured the PM that if he did so, he would make a lot of money and have no regrets.

“Good morning Mr. Prime Minister, invest some of your money into Dancehall music, Embrace it for a year!!!! you’ll never regret your investment,” Popcaan had tweeted.

On Tuesday, April 13, Holness, during his address in the House of Representatives, in what appeared to be a response to Popcaan’s sentiments, the Prime Minister put aside his prepared text to frontally address what he said was his government’s desire to pour copious amounts of investment into the music.

“So I have said to Minister Grange that we need to look at the investments that we need to make.  The Minister of Finance is listening to me keenly, keenly,” Holness said laughing.

“Madam Speaker, places and venues for entertainment in Jamaica are insufficient,” he said, evoking a round of desk-banging by his peers.  “And part of the capital investments that the government will have to make, is in those entertainment spaces and locations,” evoking another session of desk-beating.

Holness said that due to how Kingston and towns across Jamaica have evolved,  there are no “designated spaces for entertainment.”

“So you might have a dance hall right beside a church, a clinic, within residential areas and you know, we disturb our neighbours and that is just the reality of our social existence and it creates this tension in the society,” he argued.

“So Madam speaker, when I say here that this Government will invest in Dancehall, we will invest in the music and we will invest in the halls… and the attorney General say that she will invest in the dance,” Holness quipped.

The Prime Minister boasted of his South St. Andrew constituency for which he is Member of Parliament, where he had guided the establishment of an entertainment “hip strip”, as evidence of his commitment to building Dancehall.

“And I have proven that in my own constituency madam speaker. Nobaddy can’t tell me bout Dancehall and meckin di investment to create a hip strip where there is an economy around Dancehall.”

“This government does not see entertainment as only fun.   We understand that entertainment is an industry; it is a business for many; they have invested heavily in their business.  It is the reality; it is the proven fact that the gatherings that happen at parties are usually the ground zero of spread and we have tried to find ways within the public health science to accommodate these kinds of events and gatherings,” he added.

Holness also urged persons in the entertainment industry to begin planning for the reopening of the country, whenever the COVID pandemic is suppressed.

“I want to say to the entertainment community: now is the time to plan; now is the time to develop a new strategy for delivering your product because when the lockdown over, I don’t think you gwine have hand to manage parties and concerts and just people having fun.    So now is the time to plan.  And I have already spoken with the minister; she’s not in the house at the moment, but it is also the time for the government to plan,” the Prime Minister said.

Popcaan’s invitation to Holness had come more than a week after the PM not only doubled down on his stance regarding the contribution of violent lyrics to the levels of violence on the island, but told Television Jamaica’s reporter, Kirk Wright, among other things, that he loved Dancehall music, and was an unapologetic fan of the genre.

Holness had also said he did not “believe in leaving our deejays and our artistes on the periphery and not engage them” and that as Head of the Government, he has been the only leader to openly express his love for the art form and to fully engage Dancehall artistes, in spite of whether or not they specialize in violent lyrics.

“More than any other Prime Minister, I have sought to lean forward and engage our Dancehall artistes, even those who make songs that are violent. Because in a sense I understand the genre; I understand the culture,” the Prime Minister had said.