Yo ppl, it's been a good minute since I've written any lengthy discussions about anything with all the album preparation and the releasing of my new big bad single Raining Shots (download here). However, this topic is one that has been liming in my mind for a while. Back in what I like to call the 'golden age' of dancehall (nineties), there was more variety in released dancehall music than strains of the cold virus. No matter what your thing was; girls, weed, violence, knowledge, politics, rastafarianism; everything was covered. Sadly, according to my ears those days have long gone.
One of my fondest memories pertaining to dancehall music was cutting class whole day to listen to the 96.1 top 100 reggae/dancehall countdown. At the time, we were hooked on the stuff yuh know...arguing bout how Beenie is a 'now come' and how a Beenie go place higher than a Shabba or how Terror Fabulous hits should have been higher, how they put too much Super Cat...or not enough. Thinking bout that reminded me of a fonder time where dey had more to dancehall than just a war between its two current stars. Ah mean, Beenie and Bounti warring on and off for a decade now and that was hardly ever the focal point of the genre.
Things real change. An artiste like Goofy who's topics would range from channeling the Fudge vendor to wondering whether somebody just passed gas could never survive in this present dancehall world (not citing that as cream of the crop material though). Topics these days rarely stray from nihilistic type hustling, violence and giving a girl love...violently. I fully admit that I'm generalizing somewhat but it even seems like there are less artistes in total! A quick listen to an hour of Trini urban radio would go something like; Vybez, Movado, Vybez, Movado, Busy Signal, Vybez, Movado, Vybez, Movado (and yuh know yuh eh hearing local music so). And all of the topics whether informative or wutless are heavy stuff.
It's true that we're living in serious times but oh gosh man. I find de landscape getting a little too monochromatic. Dese days sometimes I does wish mainstreet crew could come back with another riddim featuring Red Rat, Goofy, Buccaneer, General Degree, Hawkeye and de rest of de clip singing bout some off de wall that using involves girls but frequently involves more obscure affair like say, somebody passing gas. Nowadays dancehall artistes getting as materialistic as rap men and is nuff talk bout money, tuff talk bout defending it etc. It's a no-brainer that artistes usually draw references from the environment around them so maybe it's a snapshot of our times...I doh know. Either way, it doesn't make for diverse music. Or at least that's my opinion. Comment and leh me know wah you think and I'm also welcoming the bun down that I'm prob going to receive as well. Face out.
