No entry for Bounty Killa

[Naminirt]

No entry for Bounty Killa

Wayne Bowman wbowman@trinidadexpress.com

Sunday, October 4th 2009

JAMAICAN dancehall act Bounty Killa was denied entry to Trinidad and Tobago on Friday and sent back to Jamaica by Immigration authorities upon arrival at Piarco International Airport.
Bounty, whose birth name is Rodney Basil Pryce, was to perform last night at a concert, Cease Fire, at George V Park, St Clair. The show was supposed to also feature fellow Jamaican act Vybz Kartel.
Bounty and Vybz have had an ongoing feud over the past couple years, which has, on several occasions, resulted in incidents of violence between their respective fans at shows in Jamaica. Produced by Jacho Entertainment, the show was advertised as a peaceful coming together of Bounty and Vybz on the same stage for the purpose of mending fences.
A representative of Jacho Entertainment told the Sunday Express yesterday they were given no information as to why Bounty was denied entry into T&T.
"They tell us nothing. They just deport him and that was that," the representative said.

-with reporting by Micheal Bruce

[Historian]

A Most Welcome Stance!

JAMAICAN dancehall act Bounty Killa was denied entry to Trinidad and Tobago on Friday and sent back to Jamaica by Immigration authorities upon arrival at Piarco International Airport.

"They tell us nothing. They just deport him and that was that," the representative said.

No surprise here. In fact, those who read my numerous postings on current dancehall music might recall that I have predicted, on more than one occasion, a backlash in the region against certain dancehall artists.

Predictably, several posters here responded by pointedly informing me of dancehall’s popularity among the masses, as if I wasn’t already aware of that! The problem for these dancehall enthusiasts (fans) and the misguided dancehall artists is that the people, the so-called “masses”, do not make policy or other major decisions in their countries. Governments do, and there has been, for some time now, much concern expressed about the possible impact of dancehall’s images and messages among young people in several English speaking Caribbean countries.

This is a war that Bounty Killer, Vybz Kartel, Mavado and others like them will never win! They can continue to do their nonsense in Jamaica, and we will continue to reap the dire social results, but decision makers within the region are aware of what happens in other regional countries, and I suspect that not many Caribbean governments are going to willingly allow their societies to inherit Jamaica’s music-related problems.

Dancehall music and DVDs will always be available in this age of the Internet, but travel is still an activity which involves the physical crossing of borders and going through entry points into a country. Therefore, look out for more and more entry restrictions for dancehall artists (and for innocent, decent Jamaicans as a direct result) as crime continues to increase across the board in the Caribbean region.

[Exile]

It's abject hypocrisy really...north american rap artists, singers are in shows in TT a dime a dozen spurging their version of filth and are welcomed....stopping dancehall music is like trying to prevent the fall of the Berlin Wall....the more you ban artist..the more popular they'll become....
On another note - why they don't ban these so-called evangelists who promise heaven and take the poor peoples money in collections???

[Historian]

No Hypocrisy At All!!

It's abject hypocrisy really...north american rap artists, singers are in shows in TT a dime a dozen spurging their version of filth and are welcomed....stopping dancehall music is like trying to prevent the fall of the Berlin Wall....the more you ban artist..the more popular they'll become....
On another note - why they don't ban these so-called evangelists who promise heaven and take the poor peoples money in collections???

I see no hypocrisy on the part of the Trinidadian authorities in this case!! The only hypocrite I see here is Historian for going against his own word and thus engaging in another focking useless debate on a once-promising-now-turned-stupid music genre while Rome (Jamaica) burns!

You did not read my post carefully or else you wouldn’t have written that dancehall and Berlin Wall simile. I love figurative language such as the simile you so creatively used, but I suggest you read my comments again about who makes decisions and the fact that for an artist to perform, physical movement is necessary (across borders and through airport immigration check points). Do you think that these dancehall artists really run things? If you think so, then you are very much mistaken. I am a musician who once used to go on some tours, so take it from me when I tell you that those live performances are essential to any artists’ success.

Now, I suggest that you leave the “so-called evangelists” out of this, as all you’re doing is deflecting attention from a serious matter! Are the “so-called evangelists” causing havoc in communities in Trinidad in the same way that the followers of Mavado and Vybz Kartel have resorted to doing in parts of St Catherine and elsewhere in Jamaica? Today, these dancehall antagonists have caused their followers, in certain cases, to effectively replace the post-1960s JLP vs. PNP murderous hostilities that until recently was a prominent feature of the Jamaican landscape. Are the “so-called evangelists” having a similar effect in any Caribbean country? I’ll suggest to you now that if people choose to give the “so-called evangelists” their hard-earned money, surely that’s their choice!

Exile, my friend, I suspect that you have not been paying much attention to the current deadly impasse that has arisen between followers of certain dancehall camps in Jamaica! Several weeks ago I posted such an article, and very few people read it. Shortly after Assasin also posted another, similar news report, and again very few people read it and no one commented. Now, a regional government has taken a stance, which is their sovereign right, and we start to talk about “hypocrisy”?!

Personally, I say more power to the Trinidadian authorities for taking a firm stance, and trust me when I say that soon other regional decision makers will follow. I do not support any sh!t just because its Jamaican. We have contributed enough problems to our own country and, in some cases, to those around us, and so today some of us have got to take an unapologetic stance against the fockery that we’ve created and are continuing to export!

Of course the banning of rappers should be an option, and it will be exercised, I’m sure, whenever the regional authorities see them as contributing in any substantial way to societal problems in their countries. Do you think they’re afraid of rappers? A guy like DMX, I’m sure, realized this long ago on one of his Eastern Caribbean working trips when he was removed from the stage by police.

But let me stop now and so allow the blinkers-swathed, rose-colored-spectacles-wearing dancehall apologists to extend this thread to kingdom come and beyond! We in Jamaica are more focked than we realize, and not even this we realize!

[HL]

Historian.................

[wbvs]

It's abject hypocrisy really...north american rap artists, singers are in shows in TT a dime a dozen spurging their version of filth and are welcomed....stopping dancehall music is like trying to prevent the fall of the Berlin Wall....the more you ban artist..the more popular they'll become....
On another note - why they don't ban these so-called evangelists who promise heaven and take the poor peoples money in collections???

Agree with you exile !

[Exile]

Don't be so hard on yourself...we all knwo of the 'good ole Jamaica" back in the days....and this new generation will say the same thing when we too are gone.
Forget the figurative speech, forget the possibility that Dancehall artists 'run things' that responsibility goes to Area Dons and Drug Dons....the rest just hapless bystanders..including politicians who have already sold their countries out....do you really blame the dancehall culture on our present lawlessness etc.???? You too have accepted that they have only 'replaced' the old antagonism of the 60-70's.
I am very aware of all the so-called gaza-gully impasse, the usual dancehall camp wars etc. that are glorified and institutionalized in the daily press.
Have you considered why dancehall, though popular in other countries, is not associated with the ills you suggested? How do you confirm cause-effect? Isn't the dancehall culture, the lyrics, beliefs reflective of the Jamaican society....aren't the songs expression of daily truths? (not all of them of course).
When Caribbean countries allow foreign US Envagelists (Benny Hinn etc.) to visit....charge people to see them promising them smthing they can never deliver and then leave with all the money - are they any different from the dancehall crusaders?

I am not here defending Bounty (who I happen to like as a recording artist) but to show the hypocrisy of the whole thing...this present TT gov. is in a whole heap of hot water for spending BILLIONS of the peoples' money on buildings, fancy projects (rapid rail, Aluminium smelters) and unaccounted millions more while the people suffer....murders over 400....while they live off the high hog - and their response - ban a Jamaican artist....abject hypcrosy I say.

[Yuttie]

The evangelics and other religious zealots has caused more damaged than dancehall can or will ever be able to accomplish in a hundred zillion trillion years!

The mafia aint got Zh!t on religion!