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Vybz Kartel Not Pleased As Jamaican Politicians Roll Out More Dubplate-Styled Campaign Songs

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Vybz Kartel

With the Jamaican general elections around the corner, Members of Parliament (MPs) from both the People’s National Party (PNP) and Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) have stepped up their game by adding dubplate style enhancements from Dancehall artistes to their campaign songs.

But the incarcerated King of Dancehall, Vybz Kartel, is not all pleased with this development and has sought to remind his fellow entertainers that Dancehall culture has been at odds with the political establishment on the island.

PNP MP for St. Ann South East, and general election campaign chief spokesperson, Lisa Hanna, seemed to have been the ‘trendsetter’ in this election cycle.  Hanna launched her custom-made dubplate remix of Shenseea’s Trending Gal yesterday on her Instagram and Twitter pages.

The campaign song referenced “Lisa” throughout with slight modifications to the lyrics complete and sealed with a personal endorsement from Shenseea at the end saying, “Yuh done know this is your girl Shenseea representing for Lisa Hanna.”

MP for Central Manchester and former Minister of National Security, Peter Bunting, delivered his monster campaign banger with a dub from none other than vibes master Stylo G. Bunting loaded the track and video clip of himself vibing to Stylo G’s remix of his single Dumpling on Twitter yesterday evening with the caption, “@Stylog call seh di dub just reach.”

Similar to Lisa Hanna’s Trending Gyal dubplate, Bunting’s name is mentioned all the way through on a tweaked version of the track with the hook, “Bunting out and bad, stunting. Dem gyal a say him sweet like pumpkin true we coil thick like dumpling.”

Bunting told the Jamaica Star today that music is a “key part of the campaign season, and will play an even more important role this year given the COVID-related restrictions on mass gatherings”.

“Political parties will have to re-invent themselves and find creative ways of communicating their message and energising their supporters,” he added.

There’s also a Bawl Out dubplate by Dovey Magnum for PNP’s Peter Phillips.

Over to the JLP camp, MP for North West St. Andrew and Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr. Nigel Clarke added his endorsement dub from the 1Govament Boss, Jahvillani from his infamous Clarks Pon Foot single.

The 15-second video clip shows snippets of Clarke out in the field with Jahvillani introducing the Minister saying, “Hey, yuh see when yuh talk about Clarks, yuh haffi talk about Nigel Clarke,” while voicing on the single’s original riddim.

MP for South West St. Elizabeth and Minister of Industry, Commerce Agriculture and Fisheries, Floyd Green came through with his dub from the Up Top Boss, Teejay, with a remix from his single Owna Lane.

The Minister captioned his clip TL a sleep? #OwnaLane while in his campaign song, Teejay rallies several communities in Green’s precinct and then says, “Floyd Green dem rate yuh, nuh go roun him people … St. Elizabeth in a dem owna lane.”

“Teejay has really connected with the Jamaican people over the last few years and has consistently put out good work. Owna Lane connects with me because it’s about focusing on the task at hand and not to be distracted which is what this election period requires,” Green told the STAR.

“Music has always been essential to the Jamaicans. Music is our language and for politics it is no different. Music is still the most effective way to communicate, especially now with the COVID restrictions,” the politician added.

Another JLP Minister, MP for North Central Clarendon and Parliamentary Secretary, Senator Robert Nesta Morgan, dropped his ‘Big’ endorsement dubplate today from Christopher Martin.

His campaign song is a remix of Martin’s Big Big single, where the deejay hails the Senator, “Nesta ah general … Nesta yuh ah dads yuh nuh mi G,” and continues to render the lyrics of the track, which is originally about him (Martin) to emulate Nesta instead.

https://twitter.com/NestaJA/status/1294137457877737473?s=20

Martin double dipped and re-rolled the tune for another candidate, Minister of State and MP for St Catherine East Central Alando N. Terrelonge.

Now that the competition between the MPs is fiercer than ever, many candidates are left quite bemused while others seem to be making strides to keep up.

PNP West Portland Candidate and Queen’s Counsel, Valerie Neita- Robertson, quite aware of the trending dubplate-style campaign songs, came up empty-handed, but she did tweet a hilarious meme suggesting that she was contemplating her options – from among the Dancehall artistes she has represented as a lawyer.

“Me going through list of artists I have represented: Vybz Kartel, Dexta Daps, Aidonia, Ninjaman, Hmmmmm”, Valerie tweeted.

Interestingly, Vybz Kartel posted his disappointment about what has been unfolding with these artistes joining forces with politicians.

“Dancehall burn politics, now artistes doing dubs fi dem.smfh..me stop do conscious song bout ya.. a bay gun lyrics !! cause unuh beyond learning tpc!” he scolded on his Instagram Story yesterday.

Valerie Nieta-Robinson can certainly scratch the Worl’ Boss off her list!