Nobody
would believe that this is the home of most of the world highly respected music
icons and the world most celebrated reggae music ambassadors of all time,
notable among them of course, the great and legendary king of reggae music, the
late Robert Nesta Marley popularly called Bob Marley by his worldwide fans.
Peter Tosh, Jimmy Cliff, Bunny Wailer and a host of other old school reggae
artistes who helped to put the small island of Jamaica on the international map
with their philosophical and revolutionary music that first started as Skar and
developed into King Music (Reggae music)
The
very first exponents of the music understood the importance of music as a
massive tool for the propagation of the voice of the down trodden in Jamaica,
what they did not know was that the music would immediately cross the borders
of Jamaica to become a world anthem for all the down trodden masses of the world.
Its swift and soft rhythm connected immediately with every race and culture
worldwide. It became easy to see an Arab humming the tune of Bob Marley even
though he does not understand what the lyrics says, the same could be said in
China, India, Australia, America, Africa and all over the world. Reggae music
immediately became the in thing, and even the aesthetics of its players became a
worldwide thing, the Rastafarian culture which the reggae music promoted became
a trend all over the world.
The
only people that found the music rather uncomfortable and inappropriate were
those who benefitted from the unjust status quo and would rather the system which
change the music is clamoring for remained the same. Then the only real thing
that chased people away from the music was its justification of the use of
marijuana or cannabis as it is known is some areas. World authorities began to
persecute world teeming followers and lovers of the music especially the trend
it promoted, people were arrested in some parts of the world for letting their
hairs grow into dreadlocks, a symbol of revolution which Rastafarians attached
spiritual denotation to, so many people were killed even in Jamaica by the
Jamaican authorities who together with some other authorities in the world
unjustly linked reggae music with crime, people were arrested and prosecuted
for being in possession of cannabis, a drug then outlawed by almost all the
countries in the world but that has become the source of wealth for so many
countries today among them the U.S.A, the Netherlands and so many other
countries that have become the legal suppliers of the drug after several
decades of prosecuting people in possession of it.
I must
admit that I grew up listening to reggae music and some of my philosophies in life
have a lot to do with the effect and above all the great awareness that the
music stimulated in me. Although I am a Nigerian, reggae music especially in
the 70s and the early 80s was like a school for me; its struggle on behalf
of the African race and all the down trodden people of the world was a
dignifying and admirable thing to me, it awoke the urge in me to know more
about Jamaica and its great people. I began to know about one of the greatest
Pan-African leaders, Marcus Garvey. I respected the level of awareness about Africa
that this people maintained even though their fore-fathers were stolen away
into slavery hundreds of years ago by the white colonialists. Reggae became the
cultural link between this little island and the world, especially the bridge
between Jamaica and Africa.
But
unfortunately, this king music like everything that begins with the intention
of dignifying the African people all over the world and seeking for a redress
to the injustices perpetrated against them has ended up becoming the most dishonorable
element for the further ignominy of the black people. The Jamaican youths who
took over the mantle of leadership after the demise of many of the great names
in reggae music, like Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and the retirement and in some
cases the sidelining of the founding fathers such as Jimmy Cliff, Bunny Wailer,
Mutabaruka etc, have transformed the music and the culture it represents into
an unfathomable disgraceful thing.
Musicians
like Shaba Ranks, Cutty Ranks, Yellow man, Lady Saw and a host of others were
some of the very first set who began to make the king Music an obscene music
they dubbed Rub-a-dub and later dancehall which diverted totally from the
ideologies of the original reggae music and its uplifting messages as well as
its struggles against constituted authorities and constituted injustices, ironically
too, this coincided with the period in Jamaica when cocaine and heroin unfortunately
replaced marijuana in most sectors of the ghetto. The likes of Bounty killer, Beenie
man, Buju Banton, Shaggy… all began to capitalize on its obscenities to make
for themselves huge sums of money abroad at the expense of good reggae music and the direct
messages it embodies.
Today, things have grown even worse with the arrival into the scene of artistes like Vybz
Kartel, Tiana, Spice, Konshens, kalado, J Capri, cham and many more. Now the
spectacle is repulsive, with boys and girls of different age groups in Jamaica disgracing themselves monumentally
with infrahuman dance steps, one of which they tag "Daggering". It is painful
that reggae music has been defeated by those who felt that the original music was
a direct attack against them and what they represented, they have employed the
same tactics that was employed against the Hip Hop culture in the U.S to bring
Reggae music down and in it stead give the people a sexual entertainment while
ensuring the death of their minds and making them numb and dumb.
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