Baby says dancehall artists are not responsible for crimes in Jamaica and named four things that are.
Another dancehall artist has come out to add his voice in reaction to Prime Minister Andrew Holness’s recent comments that some dancehall artists are making music that is contributing to the crime on the island. Many entertainers came out against the Prime Minister, who they accused of being a hypocrite as he uses dancehall conveniently to campaign for election. Now that he is under pressure to find a plan for crime, he lays the blame on entertainers.
Senior artiste Baby Cham has come out in support of his fellow artists as he says the music reflects what’s happening in society. According to Cham, he is an entertainer, not a political leader, nor is he responsible for raising other people’s children.
“Becoming an artiste was solely to provide entertainment to the world through my music. Never would I once imagine that I would take on the responsibility of a country’s governing body or parenthood of an entire nation,” he said.
“From where I stand, as someone from the inner city, the ghetto and a public figure, I have observed where poverty, poor leadership, illiteracy, and lack of opportunities for Jamaica youths are the top four contributors of country’s high crime rate, not the music.”
Baby Cham further added that it is unfair to give such a heavy responsibility on music when there were other forms of entertainment like Netflix that make available a range of movies, many with violent content.
“Are we going to remove data from everyone’s smartphones or their homes? Come on Therefore, it begs the question, is audio communication more effective than video communication? If yes, then it with great honor that I will lobby for myself and my fellow artistes which are my brothers to take over the government of Jamaica so we can finally through our music bring some order and restoration to the country.”
He also questioned whether the Prime Minister’s conclusion that entertainer’s lyrics were directly linked to a spike in crime was grounded in fact. “Mr Prime Minister did your conclusion arrive from study done or did it arrive from guilt of mismanagement over the years? People who are already prone to violence and violent behaviours will always trigger by anything that mimics that they are taught and such and it is easy to conclude that visual or audio caused the person to be violent.”
The Lawless artiste went on to say that an “artiste is a mirror of society. Whatever society tends to reflect we reflect it back with music, melodies and words. If you take away the art from the artist you take away the artistry,” he said.
The Prime Minister has not responded to the objections to his original comments, which were made in Parliament a week ago. He lamented the increasing crimes and depravity of said crimes and cited lyrics about using guns as becoming the norm in music these days.
Mavado and Masicka recently pushed back against the Prime Minister’s statement forcing the country’s leader to once again attempt to bring more clarity to his statement. Still, dancehall artists and the vast majority of music consumers disagrees with the PM.
