Recording artiste Jahshii was very animated in detailing the real reason behind the crime monger in Jamaica, citing that it has nothing to do with Dancehall music but rather a corruptive system that will not change.
“Human beings a corruption!” the deejay exclaimed while speaking with Anthony Miller on TVJ’s Entertainment Report. “That’s why mi tell you say crime cya stop.”
When asked to explain his comments, Jahshii stated that the real perpetrators behind the high crime rate lie within the police force in Jamaica.
“Me cya stop crime, you cya stop crime. The police down at the station create crime [because] a corruption cause crime.”
The artiste, who recently burst on to the scene with smash hits such as 25/8 and Crème of the Crop, reiterated that in order for the nation to deal with the crime problem, they will first have to tackle the corruption that takes place within law enforcement and the government.
The issue pertaining to dancehall to music’s influence on crime in Jamaica has been a long-standing debate that has occasionally been brought up by members of the public and politicians who have voiced their concerns. In March, just this year, Prime Minister Andrew Holness was criticized by artistes in the industry for the comments he made regarding Dancehall music and its correlation to heinous criminal activities plaguing the island over the years.
“In as much as you are free to reflect what is happening in the society, you also have a duty to place it in context,” he said. “That is not right, and though you have the protection of the constitution to sing about it, you also have a duty to the children who are listening to you to say ‘man, that is not right,'” he added.
Artistes like Masicka and Baby Cham publicly rebuffed the Prime Minister’s statements. Many others viewed the comments as another case of using Dancehall music as an unfair scapegoat for the government’s inability to control the crime situation on the island.
Jahshii, whose real name is Mluleki Tafari Clarke, is known for his conscious and uplifting music, however, more so than his songs that pertain to gun violence.
His style of lyrics coincides with a slew of other artistes in the genre who have started to create songs that speak about life’s struggles, popularizing the concept of singing from the heart and generating lyrics around the reality of the Jamaican upbringing.
