Dovey Magnum Reveals She Was Paid US$1000 For Controversial ‘Bawl Out’ Political Dubplate

Dancehall deejay Dovey Magnum revealed on Wednesday, that she was paid US$1000 (J$140,000) for the Bawl Out dubplate that appeared on the campaign playlist of then President of the People’s National Party (PNP) Dr. Peter Phillips, ahead of Jamaica’s General Election last September.

“Just glad mi did get $1000 fe mi dub!  Cause none of the parties really want to see us party!  If you know what I mean!” she wrote yesterday in response to a post on singjay Tanya Stephens’ Instagram page, relating to Prime Minister Andrew Holness’ comments about the entertainment sector contributing to a spike in COVID-9 cases in 2020.

With COVID-related restrictions on mass gatherings, prior to the September 3 elections, both the PNP and Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) candidates had turned to Dancehall dubplates in a bid to attract and reach supporters.

In late August last year, there was much furor as well as jeering, surrounding Dovey’s explicit Bawl Out song, in which the Opposition Leader’s name was interpolated with Dovey singing in a sultry voice that he was making her ‘bawl out’ among other things.

Dovey and Phillips, though, were not the only ones with naughty songs. Ishawna’s controversial oral sex song titled, Equal Rights, had also been similarly repurposed into a dubplate for Prime Minister Andrew Holness.

The drama surrounding Dovey and Phillips had escalated during an edition of  Television Jamaica’s (TVJ) All Angles program, after the obviously amused host Dionne Jackson-Miller, asked Phillips whether or not he had listened to the original song before approving the dubplate.

The single which was released in 2017 by Dovey, who describes herself as “Dancehall’s Sweet, Horny Voice,” has two versions, a clean adaptation and a raw edition in which she, in detail, tells her lover how she delights in their love-making, and how her private parts respond accordingly.

During the All Angles programme, Phillips had told the veteran journalist, who is also an attorney-at-law, that he had never heard Dovey’s original song and asked the veteran journalist what were the contents of Bawl Out.

“But everybody who hears the song thinks of the original…. And the original is a slack if we using Jamaican terms we would say slack, so how dat fit with your brand and your image?” Miller had said.

Dr. Phillips insisted that he was oblivious to the lyrics of the hit song’s raw version, but a bemused, yet unrelenting Jackson-Miller persisted, reiterating that even her producer was of the view that “from everybody hear di riddim di slack song dem hear a play.”

Phillips had insisted that he didn’t know “the slack version”, but would “check it out”.

However a day later, Dovey, having gotten wind of the controversy, opted to hurl innuendoes at Jackson-Miller and simultaneously throw insults at her arch-rival Ishawna, on her Instagram page.

Dovey had claimed that she was sure that her dubplate was not the only raunchy one as “the artist Wey just start Mek ppl know she s__k hood ney do one FE Andrew wid e suck p__y song Wey Shi sample”, referencing Ishawna’s controversial song Equal Rights, which had also been made into a dubplate for the Prime Minister.

During the election campaign period, an anti-campaign dubplate protest was ignited by Bounty Killer, Tanya Stephens, and Vybz Kartel who expressed consternation that their Dancehall counterparts, among them Shenseea, Skillibeng, Spice, Stylo G, Christopher Martin, Jahvillani, D’Angel, Intence, Ishawna, TeeJay, Alkaline, Masicka, and Quada, had decided to do dubplates for politicians, some even going as far as to endorse the two political parties.

Along with Queen Ifrica, Bounty Killer, Vybz Kartel, and Stephens, had lashed the island’s politicians for exploiting Dancehall music during their political campaigns, but otherwise failing to support the genre when in office.

The tough-talking Vybz Kartel, with the full backing of his Gaza Nation, frontally ripped into his Dancehall colleagues who have been voicing campaign dubplates for politicians, labelling them “clown ya inna music weh a run dung hype”.

Reggae superstar Protoje had also taken to the studio to declare in his own two-minute dub, titled Self Defence Anti-Dub that he would never voice for any of Jamaica’s politicians.

Tanya Stephens had ripped into the politicians, arguing that they had reduced the political process to gimmickry and failed to present matters of substance to the electorate, choosing to engage in a childish sound-clashing.

She also rebuked the politicians, whom she said failed to use their power to elevate Dancehall, knew nothing about clash culture, and were only exploiting the music and musicians as political props to impress voters.

The Boom Wuk artist had also highlighted the fact that the lockdown decisions made by the very same Parliamentarians, had crippled the entertainment industry, yet politicians were now using entertainment to further their agendas.

Her St. Mary compatriot, Devin di Dakta had also predicted that the support being demanded from politicians would not be forthcoming, and despite the poor treatment of Dancehall in “2024 Yuh (will) hear more dubs”.

However, that same month, Prime Minister Holness, revealed that most of the dubplates voiced by Dancehall artists for the JLP were not commissioned by the politicians, but that several artists voiced the campaign songs of their own accord and approached the party.

Holness had said that he was unperturbed about the dissenting voices to objecting to the use of dubs and specials voiced by Dancehall artists for politicians as his administration had “spent a lot of effort on music – Dancehall in particular”.

The political dubplates had also resulted in Bounty Killer and Mr. Vegas squaring off after years of ceasefire, after the Grunggadzilla took exception to the Sucky Ducky artiste labeling critics of deejays who recorded dubplates for politicians, as being ‘badmind’.

Vegas had said the critics were jealous because they had no hot songs, and no politicians were requesting dubplates from them.

But an enraged Bounty Killer responded to Vegas’ comments on his Instagram page in a manner so vitriolic, that some fans pleaded with him to erase his post.

The Warlord also castigated Vegas for trying to mislead the public into thinking he was jealous of the artists and accused him of teaching “youths to put money over morals”.

“Nobody is saying artiste shouldn’t deal or have an understanding with politician do dubs or whatever.   We are simple saying that if they wants dancehall support they should show the same support to the industry and music by stop stereotyping it tourist board does not sponsor dancehall events bcuz they don’t recognize it as a tourist attraction,” Bounty had said.