Jamaican PM Says Music Important In Economic Development, But Being Devalued By Flood Of Violent Songs
In an apparent bid to mitigate any additional backlash from the music industry, Prime Minister of Jamaica, Andrew Holness, has implicitly pointed out that his recent utterances about violence in Jamaican music, had been misrepresented in an article published by a Jamaican news outlet.
The article had stated that the Prime Minister, among other things, “lashed out against the violence-laced music being produced in Jamaica’ in recent years, stating that it is degrading the island’s culture”.
It also quoted Holness as saying that “government will pay more attention to the creative arts to ensure the quality of the culture is maintained”, during the opening of the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) Regional Investments and Capital Markets Conference earlier this week.
However late Thursday evening, in an apparent bid to debunk any idea that he was castigating artists, Holness provided video evidence on his Instagram page, of his address pertaining to violence in music at the JSE function.
In his address, based on the video, Holness had sought to give pride of place to Jamaican music, pointing out that while it is on par with science and technology as a tool for economic development and was embraced by the Government and people across the world, it has for decades, been bombarded with songs of violence, which threaten its integrity.
“Our IP, our culture, what we own; our intellectual property is of great value. If you allow me a few minutes to share some thoughts on it; you know, our music has been such a powerful tool not just for Jamaica, but for the world. It is a means of liberation. It elevated us in the eyes of the world. Other nations took our music and it has become anthems for progressive thinking right across the world for freedom, and resistance and we embrace it as our culture. But in the last few decades, our music has been overtaken by violence,” Holness said in his address.
Added the Prime Minister: “And I want to point it out here, because Chronixx came and he sang and not one of his lyrics had anything to do about violence. He is one of my favourite artistes. I listen him all the time. We, by what we are producing, we are devaluing our culture which is a very important asset for our economic development. So we are not just seeking to focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics. We also see that there is serious work that needs to be done in our creative industries to ensure that we can produce works of art and music at are edifying and uplifting,” Holness said in the two-minute video.
Entertainer Tanya Stephens had ripped into Holness after viewing excerpts of the Loop News article which radio disc jockey ZJ Sparks’ shared on her Instagram page today.
The singjay, who is known for not mincing words when taking Jamaican politicians from either side of the political divide to task, had scoffed at the Prime Minister, labelling him duplicitous where crime-solving was concerned. She also questioned whether or not, by virtue of his utterances she saw in the article, the PM was hinting at censorship of music and musicians.
“Artistes reflect the mood of the socioeconomic state of the country. What we need is fi him and him cronies stop be so raas double standard bout solving crime, not censorship! WTF!!!! He proudly announces that he’s going to introduce soft censorship/creativity influencing and manipulation? Everyday this bredda less appealing. Every…single…day,” Stephens had said.
Holness’ observations are not dissimilar to that of international Dancehall star Sean Paul. In an interview on Radio Jamaica Radiffusion (RJR), weeks prior to Holness’ utterances, Sean Paul had called on Dancehall artistes to pen tracks which were Billboard worthy. The Temperature artiste had also advised that violent lyrics will never make the grade internationally.
“A dat mi want some young artiste understand too. Is not always one way. An memba Papa San used to clash and him used to mek wi laugh tuh… So we must be versatile. Suh even though you guh duh bad man ting, don’t live inna dat man…It jus a damage yah suh. Is not dat di lyrics and di music is causing it yuh nuh, but if you understand certain tings – me bury my bredrin dem offa gun violence, and me fi guh inna dance or guh inna studio and hear dat every time all di time. Mi love gun tune tuh but mi nuh waan hear it everytime, all di time. Mi waan hear some different ting,” Sean Paul had said.
“Mi a try seh to di deejay dem: people a put up good work bro; play some tings and build di people dem back. Caw everybaddy a guh one direction anna dat car crash dat an mi nuh love dem ting deh. Mi don’t love it fi tell di truth. So we mus be versatile, we must can sing dem ting deh and some odda hot tings weh gone pon Billboard. Wi haffi kno dem ting deh. Wi haffi put wi mind to dem ting deh,” he added.