Hommophobia inna dancehall style...

Last year I got very excited by a track I found by Beenie Man called "That right" whiich seemed to say "When we say bun chi chi man, everybody say that's right ... but when we bun chi chi man that no right"

Which seems to be either criticising the whole chi-chi man bunning thing, or at least asking the audience to make a distinction between art and life. But I may be optimistically misunderstanding the lyrics. Can anyone (Dave Stelfox ... do you know this?) help me out here. Is this some reflection within the dancehall community, trying to placate foreign critics or just a misunderstanding of something truly horrendous.

A couple of things:
First, in regards to TOK's insisting that they are speaking of the Prime Minister in "Chi Chi Man"--This idea comes from the fact that their song was used as the campaign song for the opposition leader (Seaga--look him up on the interweb for kicks...he sold Jamaica's soul to the US in the 80s) in the last election. It was chosen because Prime Minister PJ Patterson got divorced and, in Seaga's mind, didn't remarry quickly enough--hence, im a chi-chi. The buses in Kinston are referred to as "Chi-chi buses" because public transport is one of Patterson's pet projects. Sooooo...yes, TOK ARE talking about the Prime Minister, but they are insinuating that he's gay and needs to be "bunned out."

Second:
I started this thread last year--since then, I moved to Kingston and, after a few months, had to leave due to circumstances beyond my control. While I was there I worked at the University of the West Indies, went to a number of dances, met lots of folks in the recording industry, and spent quite a large portion of my time hanging out with some Bobo Ashanti dreads. Homosexuality is a topic that plain and simply IS NOT discussed in Jamaica--regardless of context. Violence and poverty (and I assure you, I have never in my life witnessed urban poverty like in Kingston) are larger issues for Jamaicans and even poverty gets short shrift due to the class divisions within Jamaican society.

So yes, Jamaica is an extremely (and violently) homophobic society, but it is a society in which the chi-chi man or batty boy has become the pariah--the personification of babylon. Babylon is also the source of oppression, so it makes as much sense (also biblically) to bun out fags as it does to bun out the capitalist psychos that have destroyed Jamaica. Of course, I think that this is faulty logic, but, like Stelfox, (and like what I wrote above) I recognize the cultural imperialism going on.

What was most interesting for me about the way in which these horrible tunes were regarded in Jamaica. Sure, there are some hits that sound good (e.g. "Living up" by Sanchez, the TOK above), but most of the violent homophobic stuff is in violent sounding music. Unfortunately, it seems that with the rise of Sean Paul, dancehall artists are taking to not really thinking about their lyrics in any way. It becomes easy to throw in a line like "Me nah wan no chi chi man, no" instead of really saying something. Thus, instead of homophobia being an unfortunate part of angry calls angainst oppressive forces, it is an unfortunate part of songs about hot gals.

When talking to dreads and bobos, I would ask about tunes like "Log On," or "Chi-chi Man." The response I got was not "It's bad when people say bad things about homosexuals," but that "it's bad when people want to resort to violence." My friend Manifes said "Why dem call pon people to 'step pon' people. Black man been stepped 'pon. I and I don't want to do same." Sounds like Stone Love will flip the fader over when a deejay makes a violent comment. Conscious sounds try not to play violent music--they want to uplift the people...So, and perhaps this might argue against the "capitalism makes people more tolerant" statement, the fact that there is money in vapidity encourages dancehall artists not to think about what they are saying. The money factor also explains why otherwise reasonable folks like Sizzla and Capleton (I know I condemned him in my first post, but I saw him live in Kingston at a tiny restaurant and he chatted all about the Iraq war and GWB...it was wicked) make nardcore dancehall tunes like "Pump up all poom poom" and "Empty the clip 'pon dem." Increasing the international market for ridiculous pop dancehall also increases the lack of thought (or respect for thought) in Jamaica. Many folks I spoke to bemoaned the lack of consciousness in music...since music is so much more of a part of Jamaican society than it is of North American or British society, positive music uplift de yout dem!

I hope this didn't come out poorly, I might have to write more later.

Postive track of the day: Sizzla "Simplicity"

And boring,of course.

And what's so wrong with Morrissey?

Patois is vile slang. Lazy English. I refuse to even attempt an understanding.

like, since English, a deeply random admixture of several languages, has managed to hang on with both hands (largely for reasons of its proponents' tendency to bring tha luv to other countries and impose it by force),it somehow gains validity? Absurd! &c.

As with all discussions on here, the original topic can get muddied and lost - I despise the dancehall genre anyway.... and patois - well.... whatever..... but my main bugbear is that people who have been opressed can become such violent, belligerent opressors. And try to justify this by religion. Could you get away with being racist these days by blaming your views on your religion? It just doesn't cut in this day and age. And neither should it - so how dare these people hide behind the mask of Rastafari.

Prejudice is prejudice.

Just not this one.
Fuck off and comment to someone who cares.

it wasn't obnoxious or boring.

Blount this is like a solid month of straight gold from you, somebody give that guy several boilermakers & send me the bill

But it does irk me when I hear 'street' English - sorry - I just hate it.... especially the hip hop slang speak - it sounds so imbecilic.

Blount - if that's your best feel good hit of the summer, dear, I really think you should get out from behind that PC more often, meet some real people who breathe, sweat, live and laugh - I'm sure you'll experience some better highs then. Thank you.