Kavelle Anglin-Christie, Staff Reporter

Buju Banton did 'Man Fe Dead' in the early 1990s. - File

"Walk and live, talk and b.....laat dead!"

IT'S STRANGE how humorous that ominous line in the 2000 movie Third World Cop, warning a potential 'informer' to keep quiet, seems on the big screen.

It is not only from the big screen that the culture of silence has been amplified, as recording artistes have also bashed the person who speaks out of turn.

In 1983 Lady Ann deejayed about those who "a fight gains' me an me lover in Informer. As dancehall entered the 90s, the anti-informant message became more frequent and violent.

While Tony Rebel's Chatty Chatty simply comments "every likkle ting yu run gone fi police", Buju Banton declared "gunshot fi buss up inna informer head" in Man Fe Dead, another version recommending the same treatment for petty thieves. Snow's Informer declared "Informer/You know say daddy me Snow me-a gon blame/A licky boom-boom down/'Tective man he say, say Daddy Me Snow me stab someone down the lane/A licky boom-boom down", while Wayne Wonder crooned "informer, mus dead".

There was a throng of Bounty Killer songs that bashed the informer including Tempt Me, while a part of Gun Down goes: "How me kill fi fun ya tink is now me tell dem/Forty-five buss and informer smell dem/Police a come true dem fren go tell dem".

Musicologist Winston 'Merritone' Blake calls the increase in informer lyrics, the 'Snowcone Syndrome'.

"That's when the whole snowcone thing first came here and as soon as one man took it up, it became increasingly popular. Take for example, one higgler starts selling something and it does well, other people follow and that's how it is with the music. Success attracts success. Then the more controversial it becomes, the more it catches on. It's like this new thing with homosexuals; it's just sensation," he said.

Off the record, so to speak, and outside the dancehalls, though, it was no sensation for many of those tagged as informers.

One such person was Linval Thompson, 23, an accounting clerk at First Global Financial Services, who was murdered last year after he testified in a murder trial about the April 2001 murders of his mother and stepfather. Four of the men were convicted. However, the taste of justice turned sour as Thompson was murdered on his way to work while in a taxi at the intersection of Trafalgar and Hope Roads in St. Andrew. The rest of his family went into hiding.

More recently, Leslie Brown, 79, of Glendevon, St. James, was murdered after being labelled as an 'informer' to a triple murder which had taken place a few days before in the area.

Maybe it is this deadly message which have made the murders of Shanika Anderson, 6, Sasha Kaye Brown, 10, Maurice Maxwell, 13, Shaneka Shakes, 9, and Shauna-Kaye Legister, 8, among other killings of children, to go unsolved. No one wants to be an 'informer', even if it is 'good informing'.

Prudence Gentles, co-ordinator of Crime Stop says artistes who advocate the death of informers are irresponsible.

"The nation is in a state of despair and we are in need of help. This is the worst our crime has ever been. To label someone as wicked because he or she comes forward with information is ridiculous. I can't understand why that is. If they had a daughter, son, mother who was killed they would want someone to come forward, but because it's not happening to them they don't care," said Gentles.

Gentles says music has power over people and to think otherwise is denying the truth. "It has too great a power as far as I'm concerned. I don't think they would go and murder someone because of the song, but they will not say anything. If popular deejays keep saying it it becomes ingrained in the thought process of the people. They hear it as they grow up, so it becomes a part of them," she said.

She said the silence creates a problem for police: "It is our number one stumbling block. The police can't do it without people coming forward. The more people shut up, is the more crimes are being committed and the harder it is for us to do our jobs," she said.

As for the murder of Brown in Glendevon, Gentles said "people will see that murder and use it as an example. They will say 'si mi tell yuh what can happen to yuh'."

"The artistes need to start looking into themselves. They need to think about what they would like to happen if someone close to them were killed. We're all in this together. There are many very conscious artistes who are successful, so it's not a case where they make these lyrics to make money," she said.

Nonetheless some of the artistes say they are not responsible for people's actions. Instead, they are a mere reflection of the values and attitudes of the people. Dancehall artiste Baby Cham spoke with The Sunday Gleaner on informing and what it means to those in the ghetto.

"Basically is just a vow that you take while growing up that no matter what you see you won't say anything, you mind your own business. It's basically an inborn thing while growing up. People hate spies in general, even when you watch the movies, that's what you see," he said.

As for the songs that advocate death for informers, Cham said "it depends on which direction you are taking it from. I don't support crime, but you have to stop it before it reach the informer stage. You have to stop it from the wharves; how the guns get there? So you have to think about it and stop it before it reaches the stage of having to come in and give a statement and tell what you know about this and that."

"Basically is how the garrison run still. So it's best if you keep your doors locked and your windows shut and mind your own business. In the garrison most times if you hear that Thomas died last night, I'm not saying it's right, but most times Thomas was wrong, because there are people in the garrison who rob shop and rape..."

"Me personally couldn't play informer, because it come in like it take way something from my manhood. If something was wrongly done and I know about it I don't know what I would do but I would find some way to deal with it, but not the whole giving statement thing. But I say, it's no to informer," Cham said.

Cham says he does not think fans take what artistes say seriously because everyone has the freedom of choice.

"Artistes are only reflecting what is happening in society. Artistes use music to talk about what they see and hear in communities. The majority of the times the movies talk about spies and informers... But how much time you hear a criminal testify that they committed a crime because of what they see on Rambo or Commando? The artiste is just a mirror or a reflection of what is going on in society. Look at it; when me say, 'crime must done' how much people move? So at the end of the day, people make up their own minds," he said.

Baby Cham also explained the line in his recent hit Ghetto Story which says "I remember those days when informer Dirks get one inna him face and me nuh get no perks". "That could mean a thump or kick. I never refer to a gun anywhere, so it's open to interpretation," he said.

Lady Ann says her song lashes out against those who spread incorrect news to maliciously hurt people, especially those in relationships. However, she said "me naw go say nobody fi dead. Dem can do fi dem thing, but I not going to say it... If you have a problem with someone then there is a way you can still do a song about it without saying you should kill them. Dem ah preach too much violence now".

"Sometimes the songs have a lot of impact on youths. People look up to we and when dem hear yuh come and talk about certain things then dem will want do what you do. We should be trying to spread more love and tell them things with sense. Most of these people just a look some quick money. They are not really musician and artistes, all them do is sing how them want people fi dead... But the bigger heads supports it, so them (deejays) think say dem doing something right," she said.

Lady Ann recently did a remix of Informer with Sister Caroll and Muma Nancy. Producer of the remix, Hyman 'Jah Life' Wright, says "Informer is just a saying from ever since. Is just the lyrics. You know how much millions of people woulddah dead if people did take the song literally?"

Hyman, however, said there is a limit to what artistes should say in their songs, but in the same way those who spread lies on others or get involved in people's personal lives should be careful: "Dem kill people too when them tell lie pon people, so they kill you when they tell lies on you. So sure there are nuff things in music that are not supposed to be there. But for years the whole informer thing has been a cultural thing," he said.

Deejay Kiprich says his Phone Informer "speaks about reality. It speaks about the things that are happening out there. From cell phone come in, a lot of things start happening and crime start go up. A man can deh pon the corner now and see a man that him nuh like and like and him can just call a next man from which part him deh fi meet him".

"My song never say dem (informer) fi dead, it just a talk about wha a happen...Yuh have all kind of informer. Yuh have the one dem wha a mischief maker and go bout and mek trouble and you have the one dem wha solve crime. Nothing nuh wrong if them a solve crime."

Kiprich thinks that people often misinterpret when artistes say 'informer fi dead'. "If dem a inform fi di right reasons, then we nuh have no problem with that. Everybody know right from wrong from creation. So if an artiste say 'informer fi dead' the fan might just like the vibe of the song and it become more like a slang. So I don't believe because an artiste say it dem just a go get up and kill somebody. Mi nuh feel say people so stupid - no sah," he said.

Deejay Chuck Fender, who has recently come under fire for 'Gash Dem and Light Dem', which was also banned, said he would not be found doing a song that called for the death of others. "Personally, I don't deal with certain types of music. I only deal with any kind that have spiritual vibes so me in a totally different lane. I don't come to cast no judgement, but I only deal with straight upliftment songs," he said.

However, what about those songs that outrightly advocate murder, but were never banned? Fender says he will not cast any stones, but his audience will see the obvious injustice.

"That's something that the public have to look into. I not promoting vigilante justice against anyone with my song; it's a spiritual music and I would never say that someone should take justice against a next human being. I naw go point no finger at a next man and say 'listen to deh song deh, yuh hear that?' But is for the people to see it for themselves and see the difference. So I won't judge because Jah say leave all judgement unto Him," Fender said.

Though the artistes say the lyrics mean nothing, it is interesting that as murders have increased the lyrics calling for the death of the informer have lessened.

"Now you don't hear people saying it that much because a lot of these artistes are now being affected - they are being killed and robbed and they want information to get back their stuff. So it has made a lot of them more conscious about what they say," said Blake.