Following the recent staging of the inaugural Reggae Academy Awards (RAA), a number of industry players have raised concerns over what they say was the obvious bias against dancehall music.
Among the grouses is the allegation that there was an obvious bias against dancehall music, shown by which artistes were nominated and in how the performances were staged.
Well-known publicist in the business, Ray Alexander, lashed out against the organisers of the RAA saying, I have no apology, me a bun dem out, because dancehall music a poor people music, so if they want to isolate dancehall, tell us so that we can distance ourselves.
Total disrespect
Alexander says, I think it was a total disrespect to dancehall because what I saw, it showed a bias in all forms, the nominees, the categories and the performances itself where they had reggae artistes perform with bands and the dancehall artistes perform on tracks, which made them (dancehall performances) look weak.
According to Alexander, he feels that the majority of people on the board are for reggae music, they are not dancehall lovers.
Dancehall music is our music, so why should we discriminate against it? I have no problem with reggae music, its the best music in the world, but when they go out and discriminate, because the alleged rumour is that they want Mavado to clean up his lyrics first (and thats why he wasnt nominated), he said.
He continued, and if thats truth, they have no right to do that, he (Mavado) is expressing himself through music, he is singing what he lives and who knows, maybe as he grows older his lyrics will change.
Julian Jones-Griffith, Mavados manager, said being nominated or winning an award was the least of Mavados worries because he has the love of the people and thats the biggest award to him.
However, Jones-Griffith did point out that the bias was too obvious.
I was speaking to an overseas journalist and she put it the best way, she said clearly the Reggae Academy is using their award ceremony to pass judgement on the music and that shouldnt be the case.
If you are going to have Most Popular Artiste and you have like six names and Mavados name wasnt one of them, I mean, no disrespect to the other artistes, but Mavados name couldnt make the top six?
Tony Rebel, who is a part of the Steering Committee for the RAA, says he personally will definitely put certain things forward, but said he was willing to give and take because it was the first staging of the event.
However, on the issue of artistes being barred, Rebel was in total disagreement to it.
I dont think that any artiste should be barred, but as far as dancehall is concerned where the nominations are, there are other categories that should be included like male/female deejay of the year, but its the first year so Im willing to forgive, Rebel said.
Rebel, however, made it clear, that while he was not in support of barring any artiste, if a song does not fit the criteria of the Reggae Academy, then he would be in agreement for it not to be nominated.
Certain criteria
The Reggae Academy has certain criteria, so they might not accept a song that would be, for example, telling somebody to kill someone or songs that are discriminating to women. But what I would love, though, is that the winners of any category at the awards must reflect the wishes of the people, but its the first one so whatever problems, I hope that they can clean it up and come better next year, Rebel said.
However, when contacted, Rose Desouza, administrative assistant at the Recording Industry Association of Jamaica, said there was no way that there were any biases and explained again how the process worked.
Reggae Academy members make the initial nominations. So members from all over the world are invited to send in their nominations and it can be of any artiste, so long as its within the reggae genre and we have different types of categories, in reggae, dancehall and gospel. So I dont see how they can say it was heavily on reggae, Desouza said.
She continued, after weve got all the nominations, its added up and the Steering Committee will take the top four and send it out again to the Reggae Academy members who will select one from each category and the tally will determine the final winner. Everything is done online.
Source: JamaicaStar
kurt said
02:52 03/02 2008
a real f**kery no love fi dancehall
Gucci said
02:52 03/02 2008
bwoy ah whole heep a ppl ah say a beer foolishness gwaan ah di awards show.. but mi nuh kno yaah.. i guess we just gonna hav to wait an see if dem go do better or worse nezt year.. fi now.. i guess u kyaa blam dem.. dem will learn from them mistakes hopefully.
linko said
10:52 03/02 2008
lol gucci.............mi hear seh it was suppsoe to be a hight class event..........n dem hav peanut man inna di place...........mi a wanda a wa do dem ppl ya
Mekhilla said
12:28 03/02 2008
hmm alot of ppl dont wanna see or hear or kno bout dancehall...specialy not give out awards for it
bLaCkBeatZ said
12:37 03/02 2008
i looooooove it and dats wat matters lol
littlemisslinkz said
20:43 03/02 2008
yea fi real @ owadkelly i agree
Garrick said
20:47 03/02 2008
Dancehall has to change to be a more positive music, as a way to move our ppl forward.
Garrick said
20:48 03/02 2008
Dat way di dutty f**ker dem wont have anything to say about the greatest music on earth.
Shem1 said
21:58 03/02 2008
a true mon
Major Krazy said
03:22 03/03 2008
Living in a country where dancehall is relativly unknown, cept a likkle sean paul, I think the lyrical content hold the music back internationally. There are many people who feel the music but a turned off by too much violent lyric. These lyric in my opinion have there place but there need to be more balence with positive lyric aswell.
Casino said
04:31 03/03 2008
lol
living it for ever said
18:50 04/24 2008
@Krazy ...wey u seh bout livin in berlin with a gay mayor fighting the game?
Major Krazy said
19:18 04/24 2008
It seem no matter where in the world there is gay someone or group of someones fighting dancehall music... mainly due to violence in the lyric.
eg I think it's more the "gunshot the batty man" & "Batty man fe dead" type lyric that people get upset about... Violence towards Gays. No one eva upset at Anthony B for saying "these arms are made for a woman alone, no man can call my cellular phone"
In Australia, people love to get involved in other causes... eg Gay sympothisers... people with no real cause of their own, fighting other peoples problems. If this music eva get really known in Aust, I can garantee a big Gay Rights protest cos Sydney inparticuler has a huge Gay population.
On the other hand, they sat no publicity is bad publicity maybe it can have a long term advantage as the more they fight it, the more it get a mention. And again although it's not politically correct to say anything against Gays in this counrty, nuff people are "homophobic" (for lack of a better word).
living it for ever said
19:24 04/24 2008
just lets hope the music will rise and rise and rise... and dont say sky is the limit, beca the shouldnt be no limit at all!
Major Krazy said
19:37 04/24 2008
Well I'm doing my best in my part of the world. My radio show will be at 4pm-6pm soon, which is drive time. I play some reggae but mainly dancehall old to new.
In the last 3 yrs doing radio I have had 4 complaints:
1. Stop talking ova the tracks & let the music play
2. Knock it off with all this "nigga music"
3. That presenter just played a "homophobic" track.
4. No vocoder please (autotune ting)
The joys of an "open minded comunity" in Byon Bay.
f**k em I still do wha I do!
Following the recent staging of the inaugural Reggae Academy Awards (RAA), a number of industry players have raised concerns over what they say was the obvious bias against dancehall music.
Among the grouses is the allegation that there was an obvious bias against dancehall music, shown by which artistes were nominated and in how the performances were staged.
Well-known publicist in the business, Ray Alexander, lashed out against the organisers of the RAA saying, I have no apology, me a bun dem out, because dancehall music a poor people music, so if they want to isolate dancehall, tell us so that we can distance ourselves.
Total disrespect
Alexander says, I think it was a total disrespect to dancehall because what I saw, it showed a bias in all forms, the nominees, the categories and the performances itself where they had reggae artistes perform with bands and the dancehall artistes perform on tracks, which made them (dancehall performances) look weak.
According to Alexander, he feels that the majority of people on the board are for reggae music, they are not dancehall lovers.
Dancehall music is our music, so why should we discriminate against it? I have no problem with reggae music, its the best music in the world, but when they go out and discriminate, because the alleged rumour is that they want Mavado to clean up his lyrics first (and thats why he wasnt nominated), he said.
He continued, and if thats truth, they have no right to do that, he (Mavado) is expressing himself through music, he is singing what he lives and who knows, maybe as he grows older his lyrics will change.
Julian Jones-Griffith, Mavados manager, said being nominated or winning an award was the least of Mavados worries because he has the love of the people and thats the biggest award to him.
However, Jones-Griffith did point out that the bias was too obvious.
I was speaking to an overseas journalist and she put it the best way, she said clearly the Reggae Academy is using their award ceremony to pass judgement on the music and that shouldnt be the case.
If you are going to have Most Popular Artiste and you have like six names and Mavados name wasnt one of them, I mean, no disrespect to the other artistes, but Mavados name couldnt make the top six?
Tony Rebel, who is a part of the Steering Committee for the RAA, says he personally will definitely put certain things forward, but said he was willing to give and take because it was the first staging of the event.
However, on the issue of artistes being barred, Rebel was in total disagreement to it.
I dont think that any artiste should be barred, but as far as dancehall is concerned where the nominations are, there are other categories that should be included like male/female deejay of the year, but its the first year so Im willing to forgive, Rebel said.
Rebel, however, made it clear, that while he was not in support of barring any artiste, if a song does not fit the criteria of the Reggae Academy, then he would be in agreement for it not to be nominated.
Certain criteria
The Reggae Academy has certain criteria, so they might not accept a song that would be, for example, telling somebody to kill someone or songs that are discriminating to women. But what I would love, though, is that the winners of any category at the awards must reflect the wishes of the people, but its the first one so whatever problems, I hope that they can clean it up and come better next year, Rebel said.
However, when contacted, Rose Desouza, administrative assistant at the Recording Industry Association of Jamaica, said there was no way that there were any biases and explained again how the process worked.
Reggae Academy members make the initial nominations. So members from all over the world are invited to send in their nominations and it can be of any artiste, so long as its within the reggae genre and we have different types of categories, in reggae, dancehall and gospel. So I dont see how they can say it was heavily on reggae, Desouza said.
She continued, after weve got all the nominations, its added up and the Steering Committee will take the top four and send it out again to the Reggae Academy members who will select one from each category and the tally will determine the final winner. Everything is done online.
Source: JamaicaStar
eg I think it's more the "gunshot the batty man" & "Batty man fe dead" type lyric that people get upset about... Violence towards Gays.
No one eva upset at Anthony B for saying "these arms are made for a woman alone, no man can call my cellular phone"
In Australia, people love to get involved in other causes... eg Gay sympothisers... people with no real cause of their own, fighting other peoples problems.
If this music eva get really known in Aust, I can garantee a big Gay Rights protest cos Sydney inparticuler has a huge Gay population.
On the other hand, they sat no publicity is bad publicity maybe it can have a long term advantage as the more they fight it, the more it get a mention.
And again although it's not politically correct to say anything against Gays in this counrty, nuff people are "homophobic" (for lack of a better word).