Sean Paul’s Vision For Kingston As A Music Tourism City A Step Closer To Reality

Dancehall superstar Sean Paul’s vision for the Government of Jamaica to develop Kingston, Jamaica’s capital, as a full-fledged Music Tourism city, earning billions of dollars for Jamaicans involved in the music industry, seems to be making some headway towards reality.

In an interview in February this year on Radio Jamaica, the Grammy-winning artist had outlined that his vision for Kingston, was predicated on the authorities capitalizing on the city’s 2015 UNESCO designation as a Creative City of Music, and being the birthplace of Jamaica’s six distinct musical genres: Mento, Ska, Reggae, Rocksteady, Dub and Dancehall.

“An I keep saying, what I want from this Government is a Mento Yard Boulevard, Ska Corner; wi waan si wen yuh go round deh pure Ska Bar and people guh round deh wid dem afro an dem bell foot pants and tourists can come off on a boat weh dem have inna di harbor (Port Royal) deh and come ova, and guh to Reggae Road an Dancehall Drive and those things,” the Temperature artist had declared at the time, during the interview with Wesley Burger.

Now, according to a recent report carried by the Jamaica Observer newspaper, a special development zone fuelled by Jamaican music is the focal point of an initiative to reposition Downtown Kingston, via a multi-million dollar public-private partnership, supported by the Jamaica Tourist Board and the Tourism Enhancement Fund, which have “approved the start of the project in principle”.

The transformation project, according to the report, is being spearheaded by documentary filmmaker and novelist Julian ‘Jingles’ Reynolds and Downtown Kingston-based Sounds & Pressure Foundation.

The report noted that while the finer details of the plan and costing are still being worked out, the concept has already been approved for government funding.

“The development of Beat Street, which will be located at the corner of Charles and Orange streets, is anticipated to be a crowd puller among tourists and is being packaged as “the epicentre of a cultural tourism tour of downtown Kingston”, the report said.

Additionally, it noted that Orange Street and its environs where the record stores, the bars, and the tenement yards were located, where many of the pioneers and legends of Jamaican popular music operated from, including producers Leslie Kong, Bunny Lee and Clement “Coxsone” Dodd, Prince Buster, Bob Marley and the Wailers, Lee “Scratch” Perry, would be a central part of the package.

Reynolds is quoted as saying that the initiative will  provide “an opportunity for the business community generally, not just those operating in downtown Kingston, to get involved in the development of ‘the mecca of the Jamaican music industry’ at this early stage.”

He also said that Jamaica’s music holds a premium place internationally, and so “if the development is approached collectively as a public-private sector partnership, its magnitude disappears and the benefits will be widespread – not just for the players directly involved, but for the wider downtown community.”

Kingston, which is the birthplace of the careers of the legendary Bob Marley, Dennis Brown, Peter Tosh, Jimmy Cliff and Jamaica’s greatest Dancehall artists, was declared by UNESCO as “a world renowned centre of musical excellence, with a unique sound system culture and the largest number of music recording studios per capita in the world” in 2015.

However, while Music Tourism has been benefitting other designated Creative Cities of Music such as Bogota in Colombia and Amsterdam, which have capitalized on the designation and boosted their music tourism offerings raking in billions of United States dollars each year, Jamaica is still at ground zero.

The five essential elements of a Creative City of Music as outlined by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry’s (IFPI) are: Artistes and musicians; a thriving music scene; a receptive and engaged audience and record labels and other music-related businesses and access to spaces and places.

The IFPI also identified other tourism assets as a city’s ‘year-round live music scene, music festivals and historical music landmarks’ and noted that in terms of live performances, “a full range of venues is essential to support artistes” and this should range from “everything from small basement venues to stadiums and all points in between”.

However, since Kingston attained its Creative City of Music status, the attention paid to creating and making venues available in Jamaica’s capital, more than six years on, has been sluggish.

Although Kingston city fulfils four of the Music Cities criteria, even up to the COVID-19 outbreak, musicians, artistes, promoters and other players in the music industry were complaining that they were struggling with ‘access to spaces and places’ for staging events.

Jamaica’s Creative City of Music objectives for Kingston  includes, among other things, using the creativity of Kingstonians as a driver for sustainable urban development and using music and the arts to redevelop and revitalize its inner city communities, through the “conversion of derelict buildings, for use as creative incubators and performance venues to promote appreciation for creativity and provide outlets for creative expression”.

However, in 2019, artists including Bounty Killer and Foota Hype, had argued that the music and its earning potential, was not being taken seriously by the Government.

Bounty Killer, among other things, had argued that nighttime entertainment was virtually dead in Kingston, with only three nightclubs considered truly active.

The Warlord had also said he was dissatisfied with the treatment Dancehall music, in particular, had been getting from the Tourism Ministry, arguing that tourists who visit the traditional resort towns on the North Coast are seen as more ‘respectable’ compared to the adventurous visitors who visit Kingston to experience its nightlife and musical offerings such as street parties, who were, in his estimation were not regarded by the Government as tourists, but as ‘careless people’.

Foota Hype had also taken Entertainment Minister Olivia Grange to task for not seeing to the creation of “Creative Oases,” with all the amenities of modern entertainment venues and where Reggae and Dancehall events would be able to be held 24 hours per day, as Prime Minister Andrew Holness had instructed her to do, two years prior.

He had also rebuked Holness, stating that he too, had failed the music fraternity as he had not followed up with Grange even after two years, nor had asked for a progress report on the subject.

In September 2014, Chronixx had also taken aim at the Portia Simpson-led Government’s Lisa Hanna and Damion Crawford, who were responsible for the Youth and Entertainment portfolios respectively, noting in an IG post that the Governments across the political divide, had “never erected a live music venue in honour of Reggae music even though it is the only reason why people is still visiting this beautiful island of bankruptcy”.