Tanya Batson-Savage, Freelance Writer
The musical drama 'Positive' tackles AIDS with song. - Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer
THE MARRIAGE between dancehall and sex has been a fertile and promiscuous one, largely sown, grown and tended in a bed of profligate slackness. Yet despite (and maybe because of) its wanton approach to sex the spectre of HIV/AIDS, which has the world by the throat, has begun to make its mark, albeit tiny ones, on the music.
The most recent and talked about evidence of HIV/AIDS blazing its scarlet letters across the dancehall landscape finds one popular deejay desperately denying rumours that he has HIV/AIDS. Of course, given the hyper-heterosexuality that dancehall promotes, it is more surprising there has not been talk of more incidences.
But though some might easily accuse dancehall of promoting sexual irresponsibility the approach that some deejays take to HIV/AIDS seems to be changing.
Admiral Bailey's P......ny was the quintessential celebration of sex before dishonour that it seems dancehall is bent on promoting, regardless of the consequences. In the 1980s song, the DJ revels in his desire for the coveted female genitalia, wantonly declaring that his lust knows neither colour nor class and neither race nor creed; to him, it is all the same.
In shockingly simple (though timeless) lyrics, Bailey declares:
Glimmity glamity whoa
It affi tie mi
Glimmity glamity whoa
It affi shock mi
Up to there, Bailey has declared nothing unusual. But it is the end of the chorus that shall eternally set the song apart. After another round of "glimmity glamity whoa", Bailey declares:
AIDS affi tek mi
Glimmity glamity whoa
Sly Pen affi si me
In truth the empty, hyperbole promise which fills this sentiment should be no different from Buju's promise to climb a makka tree naked, or even Celine Dion's offer to get water from the moon. However, whereas those promises are clear abstractions, AIDS is a matter of clear and present danger.
SEXUAL CONSCIENCE
However, Buju's Willy on the Voice of Jamaica album soon highlighted that dancehall can and does have a sexual conscience. The song is a clear campaign for the use of protection, wherein the DJ declares that to do otherwise than rubber-up is to engage in silliness.
Buju would not remain alone in the fight of musicians against HIV/AIDS, as in 2002 the group Artistes Against AIDS was formed. According to unicef.org, the group is spearheaded by DJ Tony Rebel and includes in its roster Morgan Heritage, Luciano and Beenie Man.
However, much activity does not seem to have come out of Artistes Against AIDS. Even so, the possibilities of making a joyful noise against the deathly spectre can be seen even in today's theatre landscape. The strength of music was employed in the Trevor Rhone musical Positive, with lyrics by Fabian Thomas.
Musicals are probably the greatest concession that audiences are asked to make when they agree that art is not life, as The Sunday Gleaner has recently and reliably been informed. As though it is not bad enough to have people break into song in the middle of a conversation, they can then break into song about AIDS.
Indeed, energetic singing aside, Positive presents a dire picture of the spread of HIV in a culture which is predicated on sex as a commodity. It mocks that song which declared "if life was a ting dat money coulda buy, the rich woulda live an di poor woulda die". AIDS has a very strong economic impact.
HIV itself is a promoter of equal opportunity and so will gladly infect persons regardless of colour, class or creed. However, economics affects the availability of drugs. Additionally, when sex becomes a commodity, the probability of unequal sexual encounters increases and so those on the lower socio-economic side of life's see-saw are constantly tilted closer to the deadlier side.
IMPACT OF ECONOMICS
Interestingly, the few songs that contain references to AIDS often play on the impact of economics and the spread of the disease. VC's evocatively poignant By His Deeds makes passing, but notable, mention (or rather lack thereof) of the disease. In tackling the big businessman, VC's lyrics points to his interactions with a "likkle easy gyal" who will exact more than money when the man in question will be reduced to a bout of worries "when im ear she ave..."
What she has is never mentioned, but the very silence makes its name reverberate with significance. In this song HIV/AIDS becomes like Voldemort in Harry Potter the one we do not name. Interestingly, it is not the only song to treat HIV/AIDS as a nameless danger.
In Vegas' 2005 Dah Ting Deh it is once again a nameless danger. In this case the DJ warns his promiscuous partner that if she goes out and gets "da ting deh" she is to make sure not to come back and give him "dah ting deh".
I Wayne's Can't Satisfy Her also deals with an unnamed disease. The protagonist in this case is a prostitute. The singer allows the economics that encourage the spread of disease to be clearly brought into play as the girl sells herself for "rubies" and the like. Though the disease is not named in Can't Satisfy Her, the message at the end of the song makes it clear that the DJ is dealing precisely with the spread of AIDS.
Interestingly, though in all three songs it is a woman who is passing on HIV/AIDS, in the current situation in Jamaica, women and girls are far more at risk and over the past few years their rate of infection has surpassed that of men, though there are more men who are infected. This may well be due to the same play of economics that I-Wayne decries. And though he clearly has no sympathy for the woman, reports have highlighted that many women remain at risk and feel impotent to change their situation because they do not control the purse strings.
What is not being sung about, however, is that the Caribbean follows sub-Saharan African in the increasing rate of infection. According to unaid.org, Jamaica is at a turning-point which is crucial to avoid the disease reaching crisis levels.
Thus it is not surprising that the Ministry of Health and other interest groups have heightened their attempts to spread awareness of HIV/AIDS. 'Positive' and 'Willy', were deliberate constructions in a campaign against HIV/AIDS. What is therefore interesting about how HIV/AIDS is creeping into today's dancehall is that it is not coming in as a part of a campaign and so speaks to an increasing consciousness in the ever present danger that lurks in the bedroom. The state of awareness certainly needs to be greater, but at least there is some indication that opportunity is not the only thing knocking.
