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from ammocity.com music and media
masterfoods, whose other well known brands include mars, snickers and minstrels could initially see nothing wrong with the ad’s that were based around the 19th century nursery rhyme ‘eeny, meeny, miney, mo’. outraged campaigners called for the ad’s to be withdrawn because although the second line of the verse is ‘catch a tiger by the toe’ there was also a widely known version that replaced the ‘t’ with an ‘n’ in the form of an american lynching song. according to an article in the new nation newspaper, toyin igbetu of the media monitoring organisation ligali said “it’s not political correctness gone mad, it’s about respect. even if everybody does not make that association with the rhyme, there are enough people who do” fair point then. although it’s pretty clear that the ad campaign to sell ice cream using a childrens nursery rhyme wasn’t intended to advocate the lynching of a minority group. nevertheless it was dropped with an apology by masterfoods to the “black community”.
vibz kartels, bow cat, sodomite, batty man fi gat assassination which loosely translated means: oral sexer, lesbian and queer must be assassinated elephant mans, get a shot inna yu head, inna mi big gun collide. (i am going to shoot you in the head, you are going to meet up with my big gun) sizzlas, shot battybwoy, my big gun boom (shoot queers, my big gun goes boom) internationally marketed and distributed by major record labels you can buy these “songs” in record shops anywhere and even order them on amazon. yet it seems pretty clear that these commercial products are advocating the lynching of a minority group or is this a different kind of ‘political correctness’ of the ghetto-centric stage play kind?
the fact that there should even be a debate at all beggars belief. after all what is there to debate? “the house proposes that it’s ok to promote the execution and torture of people based on their preferred sexuality or practice.” i can’t see it myself. even macho types who consider themselves straight might be up against the wall for practicing cunnilingus on their more than willing girlfriend. yet it wasn’t always this way with reggae and it’s explosion in the 1970’s with artists such as bob marley and jimmy cliff but somehow we’ve gone from “no woman no cry” and “beautiful world, beautiful people” to “hang chi chi gal wid a long piece of rope” and “battyman fi dead!” the reggae and dancehall scene warmed up considerably on an international level last year spearheaded by sean paul and his massively successful dutty rock album. it was widely tipped in the style and music press as well as the umm & ahh people in record companies that dancehall reggae would be the sound of 2004 onwards after we got hip hop fatigue and a headache from electronic dance music. a sizeable fillip also for the island of jamaica whose economy depends on tourism, entertainment and international investment.
however the small-minded rantings of a minority of artists have effectively stalled reggae’s anticipated resurgence as label’s, retailers and promoters now hesitate to invest time and money into things that will hit them where it hurts, the bottomline. it’s only a matter of time before record shops be they high street or online giants like amazon are also forced to drop their inventory in the same way that masterfoods dropped the tiger. the supporting arguments in favour of gay bashing lyrics are ludicrously weak. the notion that it speaks to a racially defined subculture is as poor as accepting white supremacist rock bands such as rahowa whose catchy numbers include lyrics with the content “you kill all the niggers and gas all the jews”. those who argue that, as a consequence of upholding colonial laws, homosexual sex is illegal in jamaica should be reminded that so is smoking weed and inciting public mischief. that homophobia, misogyny and gun worship is authentic jamaican culture is to believe that the conscious music of people oppressed by white rule has now become that of black on black hatred. those that rely on the bible haven’t looked at the relationships of ruth and naomi, david and jonathon or daniel and ashpenaz. it seems incomprehensible that at a time when jamaica continues to grapple with social injustice, external interference, economic crisis, debt, corruption, police brutality, unemployment, poverty and hard drug trafficking that it's artists have no voice other than those lyrically masturbating about the private activities of consenting adults. maybe it’s just made them blind and ultimately everyone else deaf. links: stop murder music red stripe, pepsi, digicel, C&W pull sponsorship for dancehall events reggae legend u-roy speaks out against homophobic artists beenie man u.s. tour axed sizzla "kill gays" puma pulls sponsorship buju banton wanted boycott mobo reggae in the park comment on this article © copyright 2003 AMMO CITY INDUSTRIES LTD |
