“Dancehall Defender” Damion Crawford Insists No Link Between Crime And Violent Dancehall Songs
People’s National Party (PNP) Senator Damion Crawford came out in staunch defence of violent Dancehall lyrics, during an interview with Onstage host Winford Williams on Saturday night.
In the interview, Crawford, who has proclaimed himself the Dancehall Defender, stated that he had read studies conducted in Norway, England and in the United States, which show that there was “no causal relationship between music and crime, in particular, murder”.
“All the research – England did the research recently as it relates to the rap or trap music; America has done the research; Norway has done the research and they have shown no co-relation,” the former junior Entertainment Minister said.
“So while I was stumped by a question that Vegas asked me when I called him, to say Kartel can make the young men want to wear Clarks, how can he not make them want to fire gun? But the research shows… that influence can end at a particular level. So a friend might tell me what to drink, but he can’t tell me what to do,” Crawford explained.
The Senator’s statements come following those made months ago by his PNP colleague Councillor Michel Troupe that violent Dancehall music was driving up the crime rate, and more recently, assertions made by Prime Minister Andrew Holness that there was a causal relationship between murder music and the island’s murder rate.
According to Crawford, the murderers already had evil intentions in their hearts and were not influenced by the music to engage in the heinous acts, as the majority of people who listen these tracks do never engage in crime.
“So including the Prime Minister, through Kartel, is wearing Clarks but I don’t think Kartel’s influence has caused him to want to be a part of criminal activity,” Crawford stated.
“So criminal persons may gravitate to violent music, but is because they are criminal in their intent, and so they gravitate to the content of the music. Other persons like myself, listen it and gravitate towards it, maybe gravitating towards the metaphors and the rhymes and stuff like that. So the aspect of the music that the criminal gravitates to, is because he was a criminal and not because the music transformed him,” the former UWI Guild president said.
In advancing his arguments, Crawford drew for statistics, noting that with the annual murder rate averaging about 1700, if there were 1700 killers and al were influenced by music to kill, then there are still another 2.7 million people who are not murderers.
“We don’t have 1700 murderers. So with all the other people that listen this violent music, the influence would have to be greater than just 1700 people. So those people who are (pre)disposed to violence, they will listen violent music because of the violence. But I listen violent music because of the rhymes,’ he said.
Implying that he was expecting a backlash from those who disagree with him, Crawford doubled down on his arguments, using once again, the Prime Minister as an example.
“So as a politician, the public wants to blame something and if you come in defence of what they are blaming, you are then ridiculed. So, there will be many watching the show now to say: ‘you a eediat, you a eediat, caw it clear seh gun man listen gun song’. Yes, also I listen gun song and I am not a gun man. And the Prime Minister listen Kartel, that’s why him wear Clarks; he (Prime Minister) is not a gunman,” the Kingston College old boy said.
“So therefore the majority of consumers of Kartel or Bounty Killer, are not gun people. In fact Bounty Killer seh ‘book book book’, and we never became book people. So if we never listen to him when him seh books, how den yuh a seh wi listen to him when him seh: ‘yuh a guh see mi nine’.
He added: “What should be corrected is not the music; what should be corrected is the amount of individuals that are unfortunate enough to not be able to go to school; that are unfortunate enough to be the victim of our privileged society, and that, is not being corrected.”
Crawford also posited that Dancehall songs had no more impact than violent cartoons or movies do.
“The conversation has been directed to say the artistes are the source of our criminality and our negativity because they say take up a gun – that is no less than when I watch Rambo. I hear no conversation about Rambo. It is no less than when I read a comic – Avengers,” he said.
The former West Rural St. Andrew Member of Parliament juxtaposed the recent surge in violence against women, noting that it was a prime example of music having no influence on violence as artiste have always denounced such acts in their lyrics.
“None of our songs suggest violence against women. Entertainment in particular, has been in the main anti-violence against women. Yet there is a surge in violence against women,” he stated.