Blogariddims Episode 36 - Roots, Reality and Culture

The latest episode of the excellent Blogariddims podcasts is out today - our third contribution to the series after An England Story and last year's Spanish-language mix La Ola De Calor. Roots, Reality & Culture is another themed mix, focusing on dancehall with a social conscience: positive, political, uplifting and thought-provoking music from artists and producers who are perhaps unfairly best known for the negativity of their lyrical content. Visit the Blogariddims page to listen to previous episodes and sign up to the podcast, or download this mix here:

MP3 Mix: The Heatwave - Roots, Reality & Culture
Tracklist and lyrics here

Dancehall/bashment is often characterised as violent, misogynistic, materialistic and homophobic. While it would be ridiculous to pretend that music which fits this description is not being produced, and it is important to acknowledge and engage with attitudes that are hateful, negative and destructive, it's also important to retain a sense of perspective. I don't believe that dancehall should be defined purely as a negative force - one of the things that attracted me to reggae music in the first place was the rebellious and revolutionary nature of some of its lyrics, and I've found plenty of these in dancehall as well.

"It is funny how the gun was created by man and the biggest victim a them same one. Them not stop contribute to them destruction"
Tony Rebel - Guns & Ammunition

"Poor people can't afford good food to eat while the rich man giving dog expensive meat"
Kezi - Ghetto News

I've often bought dancehall records on the basis of their positive, thought-provoking or politically charged lyrics. I suppose at the same time there's quite a few tunes which I don't buy or play on the basis that they're objectionably violent, sexist or whatever. Consequently, my impression of dancehall - not an objective analysis by any means - is that it's pretty varied, with artists covering all sorts of topics: gun lyrics to government corruption, sex to social issues and partying to politics.

"I'm tired of life and death being sold as a pair and politicians who keep saying they care"
Tanya Stephens - What A Day

"Killing off we brothers and sisters could never ever help us now"
Copper Cat - Tings Tuff

So recently I thought it'd be nice to put together a mix of my favourite 'conscious' dancehall tunes to highlight that many of the same artists who are accused of making 'murder music' also make 'message music'. I'm not saying the latter excuses the former, but in order to evaluate the artists, their music and dancehall reggae as a whole, it's obviously important to have a fuller understanding of Jamaica's recent musical output and to realise that its lyrical preoccupations are not as simplistic or un-nuanced as they're sometimes made out to be.

"Two party but ah di same sad song dem a play: Poor People, Money, Lean Back and Rock Away. Question: Kingston mek no AK, how gun come inna JA? Who run the wharf and the airpot, the docks and the bay?!"
Vybz Kartel - Emergency

"No disrespect to the leader of finance but all now ghetto youth no give him real thanks. You give man big guns and big bombs and every day ghetto youth kill another one"
Beenie Man - My Wish

Still, I can see that the negative aspects of dancehall music seem to have become more prominent and dominant over the last twenty five years or so. But that's not to say that they weren't present in Jamaican music of the 1960s, or that there was a wholesale transition from the positivity of reggae to the negativity of dancehall in the 1980s, as is suggested by Ian Boyne and Lloyd Bradley.

"Every day a next man lose dem head dem find a next baby dead in a di bed. What gonna happen to we next set a yout dem? What gonna happen to we next generation?"
Sean Paul - Next Generation

"You see di crack a dangerous ting dat: it mek you sell off everything dat you got. Leave all the drugs alone, I beg unno leave all the drugs alone"
Clement Irie - Koloko

When I started planning the mix, I thought that maybe I'd find enough suitable material in my record collection to put together one mix. In the end, I found that I've got more than enough tunes to produce several volumes. So Roots, Reality & Culture is the first in a series of mixes I'll be doing to shine some light on dancehall tracks covering interesting thematic areas such as race, religion, rape, terrorism, safe sex, feminism, murder, domestic violence, language and incest.

"Gas price gone to the sky, every day a ghetto youth head fly, fi hunger the kids dem a cry, nuff a di youths give up and nah try"
Kiprich - Gun Ting

"Politics and poverty, corruption and crime make every man go join the visa line"
Assassin - Visa Line

The first half of the mix features songs addressing general ghetto sufferation, with artists describing and despairing with the desperate conditions in which so many Jamaicans live. As well as pleas for the killing to stop, there's plenty of outspoken criticism of the government, considered by many to be responsible for much of the destruction caused by guns and drugs. The rest of the mix comprises thematic sections focusing on drugs, serious times, guns and war, politics and finally, self-belief and self-upliftment:

"I can be somebody and you can be somebody. We can be somebody - say I'm somebody, you're somebody"
Suncycle - Somebody

"Too much cholesterol in your food, vegetable is good for your health. We got to live and do what's right, we got to put the war aside"
Sizzla - Live And Do Right

Visit the music section of the site for the full tracklist or to stream the mp3.

Posted by Gabriel Heatwave | Monday 03 March 2008