[Image: Las May, The Gleaner]

Down in Jamaica, a culture war is brewing. In response to a newspaper column written a couple weeks ago by Esther Tyson, a high school principle, Jamaica’s Broadcasting Commission recently instituted an all out ban on what it referred to as “daggering” songs - “daggering” defined by the BC as “a colloquial term or phrase used in dancehall culture as a reference to hardcore sex or what is popularly referred to as ‘dry’ sex, or the activities of persons engaged in the public simulation of various sexual acts and positions.”

It laid out these commandments to radio and TV licensees:

1. There shall not be transmitted through radio or television or cable services, any recording, live song or music video which promotes the act of ‘daggering’, or which makes reference to, or is otherwise suggestive of ‘daggering’.

2. There shall not be transmitted through radio or television or cable services, any audio recording, song or music video which employs editing techniques of ‘bleeping’ or ‘beeping’ of its original lyrical content.

3. Programme managers and station owners or operators are hereby required to take immediate steps to prevent transmission of any recorded material relating to ‘daggering’ or which fall into the category of edited musical content using techniques of ‘bleeping’ or ‘beeping’.

Now, I’m not a moral relativist. There’s plenty of things in dancehall that I take offense to, its homoerotic homophobia being at the top of the list. But I support free expression, especially when it’s coming from the bottom of society, and something about the Broadcasting Commission’s actions smacks of class prejudice, no matter how sincere the concern of its supporters may be.

In the words of Annie Paul, who has written a very good piece on this subject:

Unfortunately one has no choice but to see the latest action of the BC as an updated version of the centuries old attempt first by the slave masters, then the colonial missionaries, and now the middle and upper class elites who occupy the highest rungs of society in postcolonial Jamaica, to censor and legislate the morality of ‘the lower classes’ on the grounds that their behaviour and musical products are a threat to the moral well-being of wider society.

Dancehall artists have already started offering musical responses to the BC’s actions. Mavado and Vybz Kartel, both of whom are still caught up in a lame beef, both released songs about it this week and with no further ado here they are:

Mavado - A so you move

DOWNLOAD
right-click + save link as (mac) / save target as (windows)

and Vybz Kartel, whose “Ramping Shop” apparently set the whole thing off…

Kartel - My music 2K9

DOWNLOAD

Popularity: 4% [?]

• BROWSE / IN TIMELINE
• « MAN THIS NEW YEEZY VIDEO IS THE SLoading…
• » Discomfort Food

• BROWSE / IN everything is everything jam on it
• « MAN THIS NEW YEEZY VIDEO IS THE SLoading…
• » Discomfort Food