Tommy Lee Sparta’s ‘Brighter Days’ Collab With 15 Dancehall Artists Gets Mixed Reactions

Although the idea to create the multi-artist anti-violence song, Brighter Days was in fact spawned by Tommy Lee Sparta, ironically, many Jamaicans are dismissing the song as not to be taken seriously, particularly because the Uncle Demon artist is featured on the track.

Sparta, who was recently sentenced to three years in prison for the illegal possession of a gun and ammunition, revealed in an Instagram post yesterday that the project was conceived three years ago.  “My past will never dictate my future. My spirit will never be broken. My faith will never be lost. Because even throughout my darkest days, I know that BRIGHTER DAYS are ahead,” he said. “Over three years ago I had this ambitious idea to create a song that includes over 12 Jamaican artists promoting peace, love and unity.”

The track features Bounty Killer, Julian Marley, Leaha, Gyptian, Turbulance, Jahvillani, Kiprich, Wasp, Liquid, Dre Island, Mr. Pike, Anthony B, Saaje, and Maestro Don.

The producer of the song Chamba of Silver Birds Records, on Friday officially released its accompanying video and gave a synopsis of its contents on his Instagram page. “Brighter Days is what we all want in times like this.  This heartfelt track features 15 artistes who recognize the problems we face as a country and stand together to spread the word of unity and justice for everyone,” he noted.

The production of the song first came to light in January after Bounty Killer posted snippets of the music video shoot in his native Seaview Gardens community in Kingston, IG page and noted that it would be featuring himself, and 14 other artistes.  Among them were Tommy Lee who had a few years ago, according to Chamba, broached the idea of doing a song similar to the Michael Jackson-led We Are the World.

Mixed Reactions

In responding to a collage posted on The Gleaner newspaper’s Instagram with images of the artistes, readers poured out their responses which ranged largely from scornful, to dismissive, to outright ridicule, as according to them Tommy Lee, Bounty Killer, and Jahvillani, in particular, are well known for using their music to promote killing.

“Tommy Lee, Jahvillani and Bounty a pure bad man chune dem mek still,”
theshlee94 pointed out. “This is one BIG JOKE!!! Who is going to take the message SERIOUSLY coming from these men? This is pure hype and insincere public relations masquerading as conscious music. KMFT!!! Oonu need fi wheel an come again an tap di foolishness!!” said jamaicangentleman.

“A little late for #aprilfools post don’t yah think? Cause dis caaah real 😂😂😂” serene.empress ridiculed, while latty_31 added: “When I look at this list I realize…Jamaica is a whole series 😂😂😂…comedy series…smh”.

“They all should also bring in all guns they buy and have all them gunmen friends bring in them guns and shots, if they want a better Jamaica! The guns are like menace to us on our streets,” j4412m said.

However, the stigma associated in particular with Tommy Lee, a Montego Bay native appears not to be about to be on its way to being shed any time soon, as his musical and his personal antecedents are constantly coming back to haunt him, based on the responses.

“I don’t think they are serious if Tammy lee on it. Maybe they put him on it so he can understand and learn from the others about how not to engage in violence . Because gender base violence, and violence against your brother because him look Pon you too hard is still violence,” tdotrebel noted.

“One name blemished the single and what I assume is suppose to be a positive message… One! and is not Bounty,” jamaican_gold01 said, in reference to Tommy Lee, whose given name is Leroy Russell.

Another commenter onlygirlnthahouse_2 declared: “I don’t want to hear nothing from the tire from Flanker”.

Artiste Mr. Pike, who is featured on the record, scrambled to defend his colleagues from the onslaught and encouraged commenters not to judge or condemn them.

“I truly believe that the there are times when THE MESSAGE is way more important than the messenger! And this is indeed one of those moments. So instead of looking the PAST transgressions of who is delivering the message, let’s focus on the fact that we are all human beings, which means that none of us are perfect. And a lot of great current and past leaders had their flaws, but they were still able to find themselves and turned their lives around,” he said.

“So if we have major influencers or individuals who has a voice actually sending out some positive sounds that can potentially have a positive impact on a person or a community, let’s just embrace it and spread the LOVE and the positive energy. These are some serious times, so a message of hope should not be taken as a joke,” he added.

He was backed up by Chamba who wrote: “Definitely my bro well said”.

However, even as the unforgiving readers continued to rip into Tommy Lee, there were some followers who declared that they were of the belief that the producer had made a wise move and was on the path to helping to make a change, by including artistes whose catalogues are laced with songs of violence.

“Whether the support real or not they need to do it. Moreso the artiste who do gun lyrics. If youths emulate them then they will b influenced… the artist that sings the violent songs are the best type to do this. They are the ones that the gun boys dem emulate. So who better to sing out about anti crime. All other artist hv been doing clean songs for a while now,” arlene_betton remarked.

There was one follower joanflom, who said she was hoping the artistes were genuine with their verses and were not just pretending whilst still carrying with their bad behaviour.

“There are a few of them with stories about being violent towards women.   I hope that they have gotten some therapy AND it worked.   We don’t need no false representation. We are looking for real support and they should start with themself if they have a problem. Do a docu series telling young men how YOU came out of that sort of thinking. Music can heal but it is also a fallacy sometimes. In private the messenger practices the opposite,” she said.

Some commenters contended that with the plethora of murder songs being voiced by artists over the years, the Brighter Days song would do very little to neutralize the effects of the negative ones, which are bound to overshadow it.

“This is a positive step but unfortunately one song won’t do when there have been plethora of songs over the decades creating a culture of glorifying violence, disrespecting the rule of law and denigrating women,” clyn.cbell said.

For mrduck888, if the artistes who promote violence in their lyrics want to be seen as genuine, they should address violence in its totality and not be selective.

“If you’re going to talk about violence against women only and not address violence in general then the effort is futile. What happens when the violence continues against these women’s husbands, sons and brothers? You see that’s where it all started until now it has spilled over on our women. Unless u adjust violence in general you’ll never have a safe and healthy society,” he declared.

For realsher67, a song like Brighter Days is long overdue and was well appreciated by her.

“Ok. Full time! We all know that dancehall culture has helped to fuel the violence culture. However, if practitioners in the dancehall fraternity feels inclined to denounce violence I say, thanks and big up to all of them. Obviously their voices are very influential and can have the required effect of curtailing violence,” he said.