Tu-Lox Says Gender-Based Violence Doesn’t Exist

Dancehall artist Tu-Lox is declaring that gender-based violence does not exist. 

His sentiment aired during his My Tu-Sense ‘podclass’ on Monday night which centered around Matthew Hyde, the 20-year-old university student accused of torturing his ex-girlfriend earlier this month. 

Tu-Lox expressed disappointment in some media entities and social media users for categorizing the incident as an act of gender-based violence. 

“There’s no such thing as gender-based violence; a violence – that’s it,” he posited. “Males are violent, females are violent. No crime at all weh committed inna Jamaica or anywhere else inna the world should be distinguished by gender.”

He highlighted the scant regard paid to male victims of violence and abuse, resulting in many men suffering in silence. He further tackled the ongoing “protect our women and children” campaigns, questioning the message it sends about who warrants protection. Comedian-turned-podcaster Jaii Frais raised this a few months ago. 

“Everybody a seh protect our women and children, so, basically that would a tell me seh a woman and children alone a dead inna Jamaica… Crimes against our nation’s men far outnumber crimes against our nation’s women, yet still, the only cries we always hear is ‘stop the violence against women’ as if to say one gender is more important than the other.”

The Twin of Twins deejay referenced a 2021 police report of an average 126 women and girls being murdered annually in Jamaica since 2011, juxtaposing that data with the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s 2022 crime statistics which revealed 1,498 recorded murders. 

“So, when unno a go put out this big thing a road as if to say, ‘Oh, geezam, women are dying and this is serious’. Of course, this is very serious, but people are dying and if the man dem a dead at such a rapid rate, why is there no importance placed on this fact, this reality? Nobody nuh more than nobody at all based pon gender… A people a dead, mek we do something bout the fact seh we are losing our people.”

After establishing his point, he likened the allegations against Hyde to American serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer who killed, dismembered and sometimes ate the body parts of males he lured to his apartment. 

Hyde has been charged with false imprisonment, malicious communication, assault occasioning bodily harm and assault occasioning grievous bodily harm. He is set to reappear in court on March 9.

“If a boy ever feel like dem can ramp with my daughter so, mi done with YouTube, music, everything. Unno woulda just see mi missing from off the radar and when mi reappear, a problem. After a man do my daughter so, my career, my main ambition inna life a fi mek sure seh mi and yuh nuh inna dah same world yah.”

Still, he described the situation as sad all around and encouraged men to be more logical than emotional.