Slack Songs Of Mento, Ska And Rocksteady
Since its development almost five decades ago, Dancehall has gotten a bad rap for being too sexually explicit. Eighties toasters like Yellowman and Admiral Bailey were often demonized by self-titled music gatekeepers who believed they were injuring dancehall culture. The narrative repeated itself for 90s acts like Shabba Ranks, Mad Cobra and Lady Saw, and continues today with Vybz Kartel and Spice.
The complaint usually comes from older Jamaican artistes who compare music content then and now, but ironically, “slack” music has been around from the origin of Jamaican popular music.
Let’s take a trip down memory lane with some raunchy records across mento, ska and rocksteady.
Night Food, Alerth Bedasse
Storytelling at its best, Bedasse chronicles his naivety and innocence as a youth seeking shelter from the rain, when a woman comes out and offers him some “warmth and food inside.” Cold and hungry, he hurries inside but the woman doesn’t enter the kitchen.
The room went dark, she said come and eat
This night food is very warm and sweet
I said, ‘Lady there’s no knife and fork
And how can I eat food in the dark?’
She said, ‘This food needs no knife and fork, how can any human be so daft?
The food is right here in the bed,
Come here man, mek me scratch your head’
The 1955 track, written by Everard Williams, created a stir as then Minister of Trade Willis Isaacs lobbied for its ban as he argued that it was too suggestive. Bedasse defended the song’s lyrics until his death in 2007, retaining that it was not harmful to anyone.
Wet Dream, Max Romeo
Romeo wasn’t as ambiguous as Bedasse, but maybe that’s what happens when you write a song out of boredom. The singer wanted to shake up the “righteous” releases of the early 60s, and more than achieved this with Wet Dream, a song that was banned by the BBC after being played twice.
But before it got to England, it almost didn’t leave the studio. Producer Coxsone Dodd found the lyrics ludicrous, but it was an adamant Bunny Lee who ensured Romeo got to record the song.
Every night me go to bed me have wet dream…
Lie dung gal mek me push it up, push it up, lie dung…
You in your small corner, I stand in mine
Throw all the punch you want to, I can take them all…
The record peaked at number two on the British charts, with The Beatles securing the top spot with Get Back. Romeo was also requested to perform it at the Royal Albert Hall in 1969 before the royal family.
Fattie Fattie, The Heptones
It’s the record that gave rocksteady trio The Heptones the breakout they needed, primarily because it was banned from Jamaicn radio. The 1967 single spearheaded a slew of releases dedicated to the full-figured woman (like Clancy Eccles’ track of the same name), and employed naughty wordplay like Night Food.
I say now, when you feel it girl
You gonna say it is so nice…
Girl I know you want it (you want it tonight)
And you gonna get, you gonna get a lot of it (get it tonight)
Get it galore girl, (get it galore)
You won’t want no more, no more
Big Five, Prince Buster
Picture a Dexta Daps record in 1972, except delivered in English. From Wreck A P-m P-m, Bald Head P-m P-m, Black P-m P-m, Wash the P-m P-m to Every Man P-m P-m (yes, these are all songs), Buster was the vagina-lyricist of ska, and made no apologies about it. Big Five adds to his raunchy catalogue, and stands out with the flow from Brook Benton’s Rainy Night in Georgia, and the bar, “it’s gonna be p—y versus c–ky tonight.”
How many times I’ve begged her, to lay my d**k inside her
And now, to think, she has to beg me, to do it for her
I’m gonna jook her, with vengeance tonight…
Yum Yum P—y, Lloydie & The Lowbites
Whitney Houston said she was saving all her love for a special someone, but Lloyd Charmers opted to save his tongue instead.
I place her p—-y way up on the table
Eating p—y, Lord, I know I’m able
I start kissing her neck right on down to her navel
But when I reach the p—y, she just scream, scream, scream
I go, yummy, yummy p—-y, yum, yum, yum…
The group moniker was no coincidence. Though he performed as a solo act under the name Lloyd Terrell, Charmers often reserved his most slack records for the group ensemble. Their other numbers included Rough Rider, White Rum and P-m P-m and Open Up.