Popcaan Urges Jamaican PM To Invest His Money In Dancehall: ‘You’ll Never Regret It’

It seems Popcaan had a lot on his mind last night because shortly after 6:30 this morning at the Unruly Boss took to Twitter to send a word of advice to Jamaican Prime Minister, Andrew Holness, inviting him to put his money where his mouth is and invest in Dancehall.

“Good morning Mr. Prime Minister, invest some of your money into dancehall music, Embrace it for a year!!!! you’ll never regret your investment,” the Firm and Strong artist tweeted.

Good morning mr prime minister, invest some of your money into dancehall music, Embrace it for a year!!!! you'll never regret your investment.

— Popcaan (@PopcaanMusic) April 8, 2021

Popcaan’s invitation comes more than a week after Holness not only doubled down on his stance regarding the contribution of violent lyrics to the levels of violence on the island, but told Television Jamaica’s reporter, Kirk Wright, among other things, that he loved Dancehall music, and was an unapologetic fan of the genre.

Holness had also said he did not “believe in leaving our deejays and our artistes on the periphery and not engage them” and that as Head of the Government, he has been the only leader to openly express his love for the art form and to fully engage Dancehall artistes, in spite of whether or not they specialize in violent lyrics.

“More than any other Prime Minister, I have sought to lean forward and engage our Dancehall artistes, even those who make songs that are violent. Because in a sense I understand the genre; I understand the culture,” the Prime Minister had said.

While many of Popcaan’s followers cheered him along, one follower AlphasTribe rubbished his advice, dismissing the Risky artiste and his Dancehall compatriots as being unqualified to speak on financial and economic matters, based on their own antecedents.

“Stick to what you are good at, music. I don’t know you to be a savvy business man. What Khago’s lawsuit has demonstrated is that the dancehall fraternity is in no position to state what is great for the nation. You guys can’t even treat the industry as a business,” he stated.

“Fix your industry before you make suggestions. Your coworkers ought to come together and build the industry. Over the many years, it has been stated that Jamaican artistses are unprofessional and short sighted.”

Others like Scorpion King, were not as caustic, noting that the idea was worthy of investigation and debate.

“It would be really interesting to see what percentage dancehall+dancehall music contributes to Jamaica’s GDP… that’s where the substance of the argue[ment] lies,” he said.

The issue of music’s contribution to Jamaica’s economy was explored by Shocking Vibes executive and music scholar, Clyde McKenzie in an August 2017 article published in The Jamaica Observer newspaper.

McKenzie, who was the founding general manager of the all-Reggae radio station Irie FM, had said he was an advocate for a Jamaican Diaspora Bond, or a similar instrument to be floated from which the funds generated would be the basis for a cultural venture capital fund.

According to McKenzie who co-produced Beenie Man’s Grammy Award-winning album Art and Life, “there were a number of features to such a financing modality which would be advantageous to the Jamaican economy”.

He said Jamaica needed ‘indigenous foreign direct investment’, from Jamaican nationals living overseas, as this this type of funding arrangement “does not carry the attendant volatility of conventional modes of foreign direct investment”.

The St. Georges College old boy had argued that cultural production and preservation are “perhaps the easiest routes by which Jamaica can achieve sustainable economic development”.

“If we need any further evidence of the current viability of our music, we should look no further than the success being enjoyed by Jamaican-infused pop hits internationally. We should point out that the biggest hit for this year has been influenced by Jamaican music. It’s called Despacito. It is a Reggaeton hit,” McKenzie argued at the time.

“I have long contended that it will be the cultural industries which will allow Jamaica to continue to grow the tourism product while minimising the damage done to the carrying capacity of the infrastructure and ecosystem. The fact is we cannot indefinitely predicate tourism growth on increased visitor arrivals. We will soon have to look at getting more dollars from fewer visitors,” he said.

McKenzie also called for more music festivals, which he said would be able to achieve this objective, as with more festivals the country would not have to build as many huge facilities (hotels) with their attendant damage to our environment to accommodate more visitors.

“The more entertainment we have, the more revenue we can secure from our visitors,” McKenzie said.

“We should seek to promote major events which showcase not only our artistic and musical talents but our sporting prowess as well. There is no reason we cannot pair major sporting events with music festivals which would draw on the disparate audiences from both disciplines,” he said.

McKenzie had also lamented the fact that there are fewer festivals in Jamaica and in the diasporic communities than in times gone by, but noted that Reggae Sumfest continues to have good prospects.

“Josef Bogdanovich has defied the naysayers who suggested that Sumfest could not rely solely on reggae/dancehall acts for its survival. What is more, the attendance at the Friday night staging of Sumfest this year belies the notion that dancehall is dead,” he wrote at the time.

He also lauded Reggae Sumfest promoter for exemplifying the ‘Jamaicanisation of the festival”, noting that it means that more of the money spent on artistes fees will remain in Jamaica.

“I always had a difficulty with an event which calls itself a Reggae festival relying on overpaid overseas acts from other genres to be headliners. Bogdanovich has shown, and so has Rebel Salute, that we can have truly reggae-focused events in Jamaica which are hugely successful,” he argued.