Patria-Kaye Aarons | Why Can't We Dagger To Dancehall?

[Lazie]

Here's another, more trivial way soca won this past week. We often criticise dancehall songwriters for the absence of imagination, (Exhibit A: Bruk It Down by Vegas. Exhibit B: Shampoo by Ding Dong). However, the chorus of this year's carnival classic was the most repetitive set of lyrics I've heard. Ever. It literally goes, "Hold dem and wuk dem"; repeat eight times. And people loved it. That's no more creative (and no less vulgar) than the dancehall hits.

Sum total: 'jackass say the world nuh level'. For there to appear to be equity, a legitimate place must be carved out for dancehall. It, too, must feel welcome in the nation's capital. At least as welcome as the carnival the city bends over backwards for every year. Unless and until that happens, dancehall will always feel like a stepchild.

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/c...gger-dancehall

[Lazie]

I must agree with Ms. Aarons on this one. Yes, I love soca. However, Jamaicans are too eager to turn up their noses at reggae and dancehall, criticizing every chance they get. But when it comes to soca ... oh ...anything goes. There was a picture in the entertainment section of the gleaner yesterday that had me shaking my head .... because if that was happening in the dancehall it wouldn't be in the paper.

To make matter worse on the same night we hear what happened at Dub Club. Anyways ... juss Hold dem and wuk dem"

[Sir X]

Be more specific dont generalise,most uptown jamaicans love soca,I hate it! Every downtown jamaican love a genre of jamaican music from mento,ska,lovers rock,roots , dancehall reggae.

This soca thing will not grow past uptown,nuh worry yuh self.Years dem a try from Byron Lee times.

How can it grow when your stars of the show are imported Trini artist ?


Kissteeth!

[Lazie]

Be more specific dont generalise,most uptown jamaicans love soca,I hate it! Every downtown jamaican love a genre of jamaican music from mento,ska,lovers rock,roots , dancehall reggae.

This soca thing will not grow past uptown,nuh worry yuh self.Years dem a try from Byron Lee times.

I'm not from uptown ... and I'm a huge soca fan. This isn't about soca vs dancehall for me, just agreeing with the writer that dancehall should be given more respect.

[Sir X]

I forgot,yuh from di country.If its not anti soca then its pro soca, at the expense of the music you want to get respect.

I hate everything about it,in Jamaica.

[Lazie]

I forgot,yuh from di country.If its not anti soca then its pro soca, at the expense of the music you want to get respect.

I hate everything about it,in Jamaica.

..that's retarded. Then again ... I recall man and man cussing soca and carnival only to see them at Chukka Cove "wining on a stranger". That is the problem ... because you don't like it it should be either or. Soca, reggae, dancehall ... all sweet to me. So I'm pro reggae, pro dancehall, pro soca .. pro etc. We just need Jamaicans to stop turning up their noses at our own music.

[Sir X]

Yes it is retarded "We just need Jamaicans to stop turning up their noses at our own music", whats interesting to me is you cant state the reasons for it ,although you hinted at it the " Dub Club"

This is a cultural war, whether you want to admit it or not, for the record I said " I dont like it in Jamaica, I hate it !" , if you come into my island to infect us with your aparthate music where uptown can carry on unabashedly, with the consent of the govern while at the same subjugate your own musical cultural expression to a jail cell, I have every right to say " I HATE IT " in Jamaica.

Forgive me if I sometimes hate it in NY, when I think about the aparthate it is causing in my Island.

[Lazie]

Yes it is retarded "We just need Jamaicans to stop turning up their noses at our own music", whats interesting to me is you cant state the reasons for it ,although you hinted at it the " Dub Club"

This is a cultural war, whether you want to admit it or not, for the record I said " I dont like it in Jamaica, I hate it !" , if you come into my island to infect us with your aparthate music where uptown can carry on unabashedly, with the consent of the govern while at the same subjugate your own musical cultural expression to a jail cell, I have every right to say " I HATE IT " in Jamaica.

Forgive me if I sometimes hate it in NY, when I think about the aparthate it is causing in my Island.

Fortunately many dancehall acts are now doing SOCA music. The same way renaissance disco had to remix hip hop tunes on dancehall beats and dancehall tunes on hip hop beats to make it acceptable to many Jamaicans, DJs are also remixing dancehall tracks on soca beats ... so you and your hatred can go one side. ~plenty gyal have man .... and acting like she single~

[Sir X]

Good fi dem now explain the unfortunate situation @ Dub .

[Lazie]

Good fi dem now explain the unfortunate situation @ Dub .

... and as a soca fan I am of the view it could have been handled better. There is the matter of the night noise, but I don't see why the promoter had to be arrested. Just note that your approach of hating on soca to promote another genre is not going to work.

You ever been in a party and hear the soca music thumping and see the ladies start wining? Oh my God ... it's a sight. Mek a man get religious.

[Islandman]

Its not really soca music that many people that have a problem with, it is what soca music and carnival has come to represent IN JAMAICA . To some extent it highlights the class divide and unequal treatment of people from different areas. As the article says, they would not lockdown half of Kingston for a dancehall event.

[Jangle]

Like everything indigenous to Jamaica, we don't accept what is ours until a foreigner comes in and says it's good. I remember when reggae was not played on the radio on Sundays until IrieFM came into being. Reggae and dancehall have always been the music of the underclass. I was extremely surprised to learn that Rae Town had the highest occupancy rate in AirBnB in Kingston because of the Japanese and European reggae and dancehall lovers who want to experience the cultural authenticity. Imagine if these Rae Town street parties were expanded on to mirror Carnival.

[Lazie]

Its not really soca music that many people that have a problem with, it is what soca music and carnival has come to represent IN JAMAICA . To some extent it highlights the class divide and unequal treatment of people from different areas. As the article says, they would not lockdown half of Kingston for a dancehall event.

Yes, you have a point.

[Sir X]

Lol......and i dont...hehe,thanks Island.

[Gamma]

i went to one carnival in jamaica and will never return, an uptown browning inveigle mi and never again.

i does not like soca