Yaadcore Teams Up With Jah9, Subatomic For Cover Of John Holt’s ‘Police in Helicopter’
Reggae songstress Jah9 has teamed up with her colleague Yaadcore and the Subatomic Sound System for a cover of John Holt’s 1982 classic Police in Helicopter, which the Avocado artist says has been “reimagined for a new generation”.
A few days ago Jah9 posted a captioned visualizer on her Instagram page announcing the song’s release “on all platforms”.
“Tribute Music🔥 one of my all-time favorites! John Holt’s classic 👌🏿reimagined by my brothers @yaadcore and @subatomic,” she wrote. “I could do a whole lecture on what this song means to me. Instead, here’s a brief history… context for those too young to know the struggle it took to get to a place where we in Jamaica can openly use our medicine in peace. Still a long way to go before we truly unleash all the wholistic and economic potential of this magical plant. But we celebrate the small victories.”
Police in Helicopter is one of Jamaica’s most popular ganja tunes, and was perhaps the only one of its kind back then to advocate retaliation for the Jamaican government’s marijuana eradication efforts, which they were ordered to undertake by the United States Government.
The song addresses the search-and-destroy efforts, by air and on land which the security forces were mandated to undertake by the political leaders at the time with Holt singing:
“Police in helicopter
A search fe marijuana
Policemen in the streets
searching fi collie weed
Soldiers in the field
burnin’ di collie weed”
He then promises revenge to be exacted on sugar cane plantations, adding:
“But if you continue to burn up the herbs herbs
We gonna burn down di cane fields”
Jah9 and her compatriots’ visualizer provides a scripted history lesson about the United States meddling with Jamaica’s ganja, and significant occurrences beginning in 1974 and others which took place in 1980, 1982, 1987, 2010, 2015 and 2020, leading up to this year.
“In 1974 under pressure from US President Nixon, Jamaican police coordinated Operation Buccaneer with the CIA and US Military to eradicate marijuana from the island,” it said. “In the 1980s, US President Reagan’s war on drugs escalates the destruction of marijuana with aerial seek and destroy missions burning fields five days a week.
“In 1982, singer John Holt writes Police in Helicopter warning that ‘if you continue to burn down the herb we gonna burn down the cane fields’. The song is a big hit. By 1987, $2.5 million of US tax-payer money plus $9 million in US military aid is going to Jamaica for Operation Buccaneer II and III. Hundreds of acres are burned,” it added.
In further outlining the circumstances and the behavior of the United States over the decades, it noted that: “Nearly 10 million marijuana arrests were made in the USA between 2000-2010. Half of all drug arrests in the USA are related to marijuana despite being legalized in many states.”
While the text outlines the year ganja was decriminalized in Jamaica, it excludes the reason behind the move, which was spurred by national and international outrage after Montego Bay native Mario Deane was arrested by the police for being in possession of a spliff and mysteriously beaten to death, after being locked in a cell at the Barnett Street Police Station by a policewoman on August 3, 2014.
“In 2015 Jamaican began decriminalizing marijuana. The government now controlled licenses and taxation creating new challenges for small farmers. The legal cannabis industry grossed $13.6 billion dollars in 2020 in the USA alone, while at least 40,000 people remain in prison for marijuana related offences some in for-profit prisons and mostly people of colour,” it stated, in pointing out the duplicity in that scenario.
On Subatomic’s Instagram page where the video was also posted, they also gave insights of the song’s origin and why the remake of the Police in Helicopter record was critical at this point in history, a year shy of its 40th anniversary.
“Originally written by #JohnHolt in 1982, the song was a response to #OperationBuccaneer, a US funded, CIA led initiative by the Jamaican police to search and destroy🔥 all #marijuana fields 🌱 on #Jamaica 🇯🇲.
“The burning of marijuana fields in Jamaica paved the way for an influx of cocaine trafficking that was in part led by Nicaraguan Contra rebels, who were also funded by the CIA, and ultimately led to the crack epidemic which destroyed generations of family across both Jamaica and the USA,” it noted.
‘‘’Eradicate all #marijuana from the island’ was the goal of the CIA led, US funded Operation Buccaneer coordinated with Jamaican police starting in 1974. Millions of dollars were spent each year to destroy a plant, imprison people who remain in jail while a multi-billion dollar cannabis industry has been built on the ashes,” it added.
“John Holt’s 1982 song #PoliceInHelicopter tells part of the story. #SubatomicSoundSystem , @jah9online & @yaadcore re-imagined the song for @yardbirdzrecords to bring it to a new generation along with the decades of history that go along with it. If you don’t know the past then you can’t define the future.
Fans of Jah9, expressed glee at the revelation of the new song, many expressing anger about the CIA-led Operation Buccaneer, which saw copious amounts of Jamaica’s forests and soil being degraded as well as habitat and wildlife destruction in its aftermath, as the Jamaicans and their US accomplices merrily flew round the island in helicopters, burning the ganja farms to the ground and spraying the fields with toxic chemicals.
“Agree 9! I was not even born when the eradication of the plant was taking place 😮 pure racism and on top of that they caused environmental traumas. I hope all these white owned Ganja businesses (which I’ll never support) replant a tree for every purchase in Jamaica and provide licenses to local farmers. It’s the least they can do if they’re in solidarity,” bynwabugo said.
“Then Babylon would pour chemicals on the lands too that not even wild bush could grow back… my Rasta relatives in West told us the many stories,” revejewellery.
Jah9 and her fans also lamented the fact that the United States spearheaded the destruction of many of Jamaica’s native strains of ganja.
“I’m from Westmoreland and I remember it like yesterday. The ‘Eradication Squads’ in the 80s. As a results certain strains of marijuana have been lost forever,” kimee1930 wrote, to which Jah9 responded: “real tragedy losing some of our land races/strains”
Another commenter nascentcharm, rebuked the Jamaican political leadership back then, of being weak and subservient.
“This is why USA is leading in the Ganja Business when it should be us Jamaicans but Black people can never have anything cause we sell each other out for the white man to pat us on the head and say well done!!” she said.