Many things about life are obvious. By obvious, I mean it’s right before your eyes ; easily seen. But sometime being obvious doesn’t mean it’s understood. Sometimes it’s not clear what you are looking at. However for those that pay attention, they get the value for which they are paying. To that end, many of the people who are complaining about DanceHall trends are not paying attention.
DanceHall spaces aren’t considered to be respectable places.
In respectable circles they speak of motivation. Inspiration to resist and resilience to endure against the odds. Quotes from now famous writers accompanied by piano music. You too can resist, you too can beat the odds. That’s the abstract message. An obvious message that anyone can be successful. But how does one endure, what action must one take to resist?
Another way to articulate the spirit of resistance and endurance is in the die hard attitude of gangsters. A die hard is one who endures but more so they tell you in practical terms how. They would get what they want or die trying. This sentiment is pervasive across many human existential domains. For instance Curtis Jackson (2003) polemic, ‘Get Rich or Die Trying’ illustrates the point explicitly. To resist meant using guns, to try was to make money. The albums intro was the sound of falling coins and cranking guns. I only reference Mr. Jackson since he’s now rich. He wasn’t rich when he penned the 2003 masterpiece. Yet with the composition, he conveyed the state of mind necessary for his success. His how to guide in resistance and endurance.
Jamaica is similar to the USA in that we share in the Western capitalist culture. North American tourists fill our beaches while Jamaican workers fill their jobs. However unlike USA, Jamaica is a middle income country, still developing. Which means the opportunities to get rich in Jamaica is not as abundant. Taking into consideration that USA is the world’s largest economy, I think that shoud be obvious if you are paying attention.
Now, to point out more obvious things; let’s focus our attention on DanceHall. What is happening in DanceHall is no mystery. You are hearing the philosophy of die hards just as any Mya Angelou or Curtis Jackson. Only the cultural expression is different and the circumstances. DanceHall expresses how to resist and endure through the struggles of being in the Jamaican getto. Get rich or die trying is a theme so so obvious that it’s in the very lyrics.
The very idea that Jamaicans are a die hard people is not revelatory news. Yaffi just mek up your mind and dweet. Simple as that. For instance, Sliq One (2019) in Panbelly said that “badness doen’t pay but at least you will get a new suit and a pretty coffin. Money stink like dead when it’s rotten.” Just a poetic way to say that it is better to die rich. There is implicit and explicit acknowledgement within DanceHall of the deplorable things that one has to do. But one does them anyway. Endurance and resistance.
Around 2007, early days of scamming’s popularity; Jamaican scammers pride themselves on being the ones who commit ‘White People’ crime. A play on words with a dual meaning. White collar crime mixed with our colonial history of criminal behaviours by White Planters. In essence, the Scammers are emulating the White man’s behaviour to make money. In colonial Jamaica up until around the 1970s, to work indoors meant you had to be light skinned. Office work was reserved for light skin people. Scamming in that sense was like office work. Skin bleeching became associated with the Scammers profile. The success of the early adopters inspired a whole new era of Scammers now termed Choppers (Choppa). The benefits of the lifestyle was blatantly obvious, especially to those in the getto who weren’t Chopping. Just like how people everywhere in the world share opportunities, the good news of white people crime spread across Jamaica like a gospel. The Gospel of liberation from poverty.
In ancient times, you popularise ideas in the public consciousness either through the authority of the Priesthood or Entertainment by the Poet. Contemporary Jamaica is no different and DanceHall is an institution of Poets. The institution of Priests is embodied in Books and Print media.
Skillibeng (2020) best illustrates the history and culmination of scamming. DanceHall is merely the institution through which the Poets recount our reality. With polemic like ‘Brik Pan Brik’ Skillibeng tells us what is happening. The music video opens up with an arrrest, indicating explicitly a confessed crriminal. He’s not lying and if he was he’s dying. That’s the spirit of a die hard and in Brik Pan Brik, Skillibeng went hard. The solution to all problem was placed on the table; Briks (money). In fact, money is the solution proposed by politicians to all kinds of problems. So yet again, something obvious.
Education was marketed to many people my generation (Mellinials) as the solution to poverty. The previous generation, their solution was Skills. Skills Training and Education became a staple for political rhetoric. Since Education is the key, those without education are locked out. Locked out of the official political narrative at least. What we are seeing in DanceHall is a narrative from the other side of the door. Those that got left behind by the education train. The last words of Skillibeng (2020) protagonist Brik Boss in the music video was, ‘No Education!’ Yet still his pocket is not fractured. Which is to say they have figured out how to make money despite being uneducated.
It easier to be a rich man by scamming than be a tailor. Because I’ve been a tailor a long time and still not rich yet. Many young people see that and don’t want to take that chance.
~Tailor
Malie Donn (2022) brought us to the Bank. According to Minister Chang’s (January 2022) obviously false claim that scamming brings in 1 Billion USD annnually, calling it a Bank makes perfect sense. Malie Donn did not mince words, saying he’s a thief. “Yes Miss Jen, I’m still a thief. Still committing criminal activities”. Why is he doing this? To get rich or die trying. Our DanceHall music literally tells us what is happening, why it is happening and how. It’s all obvious before our eyes. Yet still you have people who are quite baffled. That’s because they aren’t paying attention or simply willfully ignorant.
Valiant (2022) is as current as I can get in bringing home the money. Even with no education you can still have cash. But without money, your skull will certainly get upset. That’s the reality of the so called uneducated. The motivation in DanceHall tells the dunce at the back of the class with no subject that there is a better reality. Not a promise reality but one that exists now and they can have it. Even the uneducated can cash a Dunce Cheque. Isn’t that inspiration and resistance. What would you tell those with no subject? The decision for them is clear, they make money the subject. Get rich or die trying. That’s what it means to be a die hard.
Those who consider themselves to be educated have their own heroes. Likewise, the uneducated. The educated become priests, but poets can be anyone. The institution of Poets being more open to anyone. Even university graduates are DanceHall artists. But rarely have we seen the artists allowed in the discourse of academics. Nor do academia listen to them with any seriousness. Only a few academics do. The respectable and educated cite research papers and books as their source of insight. Institutions of the Priesthood. The Poets on the other hand cite their lived experience of their existence as the source of their insight. DanceHall being an institution of Poets does not hide behind the virtue signals of Priests. That’s why they will tell you as it is, and what they are. This is a form of radical acceptance of your lot in life as the dregs of society. This is what we are seeing in DanceHall. It’s a message to those that suffer – that if you must die, die trying. Anything a anything.
Man is a surviver. Man will do anything it takes to survive. We are witnessing people who decided to do for themselves.
The Social Philosopher 
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