This is Melanie. It's also her birthday. Mistakes will be made. Kingdom will drop exclusives, and the Bass Patrol will come and break up the party. Everybody's ass is showing.
And an amazing old Witch Doctor remix I'd never play out.
Armand Van Helden Witch Doctor (Chestnut Mix) (320)
3 comments:
Hey -- quasi-random passerby here trying to find out what is up next Tues. nights at ZuZu. (Which I went to two weeks ago and was totally awesome, if you are involved, thanks.)
Anyway, given the content of this post, I thought I'd leave my increasingly standard note that acknowledges how great dancehall can be but encourages people not to support/promote/link to/etc, the homophobic/misogynistic elements of it (Vybz Kartel). There are lots of other artists out there, why not support people whose politics you support too? (I'm assuming/hoping!) Just a suggestion. Thanks!
I listen to songs on an individual basis, and avoid the "bad tracks" in both my acquisition and performance. Vybz has some tracks that aren't gay bashers, as well as many that are.
While genuinely appreciating the feedback, I feel that the greater North American "gay community's" disdain for most things reggae has a racist core, something I try to combat in what I do. I'll prove it at Nu Life next tuesday
Huh -- I had no idea that the US gay community had a particular disdain for most things reggae. I don't mean to doubt you, I'm just not that familiar with the gay community.
On the other hand, it's clear to me that US is a pretty racist place and if there is *general* disdain for reggae I think there is no doubt racism needs to addressed in that. And of course when people in the US do like reggae, a lot of the US consumption is completely orientalized.
This aside, one could infer from your response that you feel like there is a racist aspect to calling out Dancehall (or Jamaican culture at large, for that matter) on its homophobia. I couldn't disagree with that more. Certainly race *can* play an issue in calling artists/groups/cultures out on being homophobic, but there is no intrinsic connection and boycotting certain homophobic artists is not necessarily racist.
Anyway, I didn't really have any agenda here except to raise it as an issue. I've been surprised to see the blatantly homophobic tracks elsewhere in the US "global dance"/whatever you call it scene, and was also surprised at the apparent lack of discussion of the issue given that that scene tends to otherwise be quite thoughtful and aware/self-aware. But since you already have thought this through, uh, mission accomplished I suppose. Thanks for conversing.
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