Denise Reid, Gleaner Writer

Gayle andMcGregor

Forty-year reggae veteran Freddie McGregor has taken issue with anthropologist and lecturer at the University of the West Indies, Dr Herbert Gayle, who has said that dancehall does not cause crime in Jamaica.

"(Dancehall) is damaging our society and certainly has damaged the music industry," said McGregor. "When we glorify the things that present-day dancehall glorifies it cannot in any way be a good thing for our society, and that is the staunch reality that is facing us."

In a Gleaner article published on November 5, Gayle stated that while dancehall is a good trigger for violence it is not a root cause of crime. Gayle said that dancehall is simply social commentary and an indicator of what takes place in society.

not the root cause

"(Dancehall) is not a root cause (of violence). If you never had all of these problems before you couldn't have a situation where anything as simple as a song causes people to harm each other," Gayle said. He added that having had the impetus to harm others, people will use dancehall - like any other form of music - to trigger violence.

McGregor, though, is countering this argument, saying dancehall is not just damaging the society but the legacy that he and older artistes worked so hard to create.

McGregor argued that the music, industry has dwindled to nothing and pointed out that most of the popular artistes are even unable to tour.

derogatory comments

As an example, McGregor made mention of a distasteful article printed in a Bahamian newspaper, which made derogatory comments about past and present artistes.

Dancehall deejay Mavado was recently prevented from entering The Bahamas and The Nassau Guardian reported that in calling for dancehall artistes to be banned from the island, president of The Bahamas Christian Council, Reverend Patrick Paul, said "We do not need anything that remotely threatens to detract from the respect and honour we show to our Bahamian women."

Paul was also quoted as saying "In the late 1970s Bob Marley visited our country and The Bahamas has not been the same since."

lack of intellect

McGregor said that all the issues facing dancehall have been caused by a lack of intellect. Using the gay issue as an example, he explained that even though he does not support gays, he would never sing songs demanding that gays be killed and butchered.

McGregor said that older artistes left a vibrant dancehall culture for this generation, but lamented "What we are experiencing now that we call dancehall is a joke; it's violence, lewdness, all the things that we do not uphold.