So I was watching something like Magic or Heart or one of them ones there on Sky the other day and they had this program called '50 forgotten classics' or something like that. They dropped 'Mr Loverman' and it got me thinking about the differences that I've noticed between dancehall and grime artists. When that track came out it was huge, right? And back then doing big numbers wasn't 'cool'. It meant you had 'sold out', 'crossed over' etc. So then after Shabba, Mr Lova-Lova Shaggy was the next smash outta JA, followed most recently by Sean Paul (what is it with dudes beginning with S doing well?). When I went to Kingston, (Jamaica, Jamaica not Surrey, Surrey) last year to interview a bunch of people for i-D, every artist I talked from Vybz Kartel to Don Corleone shouted out Shabba, Shaggy and Sean-a Paul. Everyone of them guys made it a point to say 'respect to...' because they recognised that each helped reggae and dancehall become a worldwide music. Now, don't get me wrong they have beefs and battles with each other out there of course, like any scene, but when it comes to talking to international press they don't bitch and bad-mouth each other. They could give an F that it might be considered 'uncool' to shout out Shaggy. They don't use the press to take pot shots at another artist. Look at dancehall and look at grime and which is the healthier scene? There's many reasons why that is, but I swear one of them is the sense of solidarity and pride within dancehall. Now I'm not trying to get on some cheesy 'feel the love' steez, but I'm saying if artists cared less about what so-and-so is supposed to have said and 'i'm going to write bars for this man' and instead looked at building a scene together, well wouldn't that be nice. We can't all get along but until there's some sense of cohesion in grime, like there is in dubstep say, then it only makes things harder. Like a wise man once said, I believe it was the Black Eyed Peas - where IS the love?
Shabba!
No comments:
Post a Comment