Dancehall artist Intence is taking aim at Prime Minister Andrew Holness, after the Jamaican Prime Minister made several remarks about contemporary dancehall music recently.
The track, yet to be released by the Yahoo Boyz deejay titled “Stand Out” rhymes, “You know why Andrew Holness seh we wrong again? Seh the music a sing fi di scamma dem, and we fi low the chip and the banga dem…but den again den again den again…Nuttn nah gwan and we bruk like dog, so we fully educated and can’t get a job.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0op6tqmhls8
Although he did not mention any of Intence’s many songs that topped the YouTube charts last year, The Prime Minister’s statements are the latest comments by leaders in the island that lay the blame for society’s violence and decay on dancehall music. In acknowledging the current popularity of the songs dominating the island’s YouTube charts, he said we can’t allow it to define Jamaica.
“We are being defined by some very limited things. Whap Whap and Chap Chap and Ensure… All of those things have their place, but it can’t define us. We should not allow that to define us,” Holness said during his address at a meeting of the Jamaica Labour Party in St. Catherine on Sunday.
Four months ago the Prime Minister said that his administration would not censor Dancehall artists or their lyrical content, per Dancehall Mag, even if depraved or degenerate, but would instead, privately utilize the usual gentle persuasion.
He told Anthony Miller that he is aware of the concerns raised in the general public about the distasteful content in much of the new music being released.
“There are many people who feel that the message has been diluted, diverted, and that though there is still talent, the talent may not be directed towards the social good,” Holness had said in an interview on TVJ’s Entertainment Report.
In August 2020 on Jamaica’s general election campaign trail, political hopefuls from both sides of the divide, brought into focus the influence of Dancehall to sway votes.
The previous year (2019) a group of young professional lawyers to be, were chastised and told that their favorite art form was not worthy of an Instagram post.
Attorney, Peter Champagnie, is quoted in the press as saying that he “enjoys all genres of music, but there is a time and a place for everything”. This after the Mona Law School posted a few pictures of women dressed in old-school Dancehall regalia.
The Gleaner quoted Champagnie as saying: “What is particularly offensive about it (the pictures) is that they are for public display. It is not a private viewing page, and it is associated with persons who would wish to join what I still consider a noble and respectable profession.”
Subsequently, he said that he would be pulling out of a prior commitment with the law society.
Holness, who is often referred to as Bro Gad, also chimed in on the recent announcement by Guyana’s Home Affairs Minister that Skeng is banned from performing at publicly in that country. Calling the developments an embarrassment.
“It is an embarrassment to me when another country say I don’t want your artiste in my country,” he said during his address at a Jamaica Labour Party Area Two Council Meeting in Sydenham, St Catherine on Sunday (June 12).
Tanya Stephens has also responded to Holness’s “embarrassment” comments by saying, “You and your entire cabinet are embarrassment. Dancehall isn’t trickling down into the schools. The schools are PRODUCING the makers of dancehall under your collective crappy stewardship.”
