Teino Evans, Staff Reporter

(Left)King: Jamaican music needs to return to the days of old, (Middle) Kenyatta Hill, son of the late Joseph 'Culture' Hill, performs at Western Consciousness 2007 and (Right)Lee 'Scratch' Perry in action at Western Consciousness 2006. - file photos

Promoter of the annual Western Consciousness concert, Worrell King, who was honoured at the 2007 staging on April 28, says while he is grateful for the recognition music still leaves a lot to be desired where the promotion of consciousness is concerned.

"The award was for the upliftment and maintenance of consciousness within the reggae industry, and it's a wonderful feeling because it shows that people out there are recognising your work. It is even more than cash, because if I got cash that night it would be finished already," said King, who was honoured at the Llandilo Cultural Centre in Westmoreland.

However, King feels that more should be done to promote conscious artistes and their positive messages.

Total destruction

"The first thing, I don't see much music being made. What I see is some guys talking some things and having an audience and it continues because it works. But it is total destruction," King said.

"What we need to see is more music being constructed. These people out there today don't know real music; they are producing 'dreggae' instead of reggae, not much uplifting music. The few artistes who do uplifting music are not being played."

According to King, Jamaican music needs to return to the days of old where it was constructed properly and more positive messages were being relayed.

Uplifting messages

"Mi waan fi si propa reggae music being played. We want to return to the days of old when musicians construct proper music and artistes vocalising rather than spitting up inna di mic. And deejays, we need to hear uplifting messages. These guys need to sit and listen to like a Peter Tosh, Bob Marley, Bob Andy, writing and constructing music. They were like builders, constructing a building," King said.

As a matter of fact, King believes that it is because of the violent and degrading lyrics being uttered by the current crop of deejays why the society is in the state that it is in.

"This is why we have so much criminals and crime today, because the youngsters who listen and see these artistes as their heroes who say they want to fly a guy marrow, they believe that this is the right way to go. And my sisters all of a sudden become gyal and some of them (females) condone this when they scream for these artistes at the front of the stage," King said.

Worrell King says he believes that in life everyone has the choice of choosing good or bad, positive or negative and, as such, "the music industry has a similar status, the choice of doing good music or bad music".

However, after being in the business some 25 years, King say his decision was a tough one to make at the time, he is happy he abided by it over all these years.

"When I entered the business some 25 years ago as a promoter with Ken Nelson and Michael Whyte there was mostly bad music, and for you to come out and say you would be promoting conscious music you would be looked on as a mad man flogging a dead horse. The music back then was slack and how my stance came about was that I decided that whatever I was doing it must be everlasting. Now I see that I was totally right in what I did," King said.

Celebration plans

In looking towards next year's Western Consciousness stage show, King says plans have already started, as they will be celebrating 20 years.

"What we will be doing is to consolidate on the concept. We don't want to say much now, but we are looking through the 20 years and artistes who performed, because some have created an impact and we will be presenting them in a special way. We will also search out those who performed in year one (of Western Consciousness) and bring them back, because they were the builders. Also, we will be looking to bring in a very special person who has never graced the stage of Western Consciousness," King said.