{"id":3723,"date":"2022-06-24T22:31:59","date_gmt":"2022-06-24T22:31:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/?p=3723"},"modified":"2022-06-24T22:34:45","modified_gmt":"2022-06-24T22:34:45","slug":"the-good-in-dancehall-outweighs-the-bad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/?p=3723","title":{"rendered":"The Good in Dancehall Outweighs the Bad"},"content":{"rendered":"

Acclaimed Jamaican dancer and lecturer at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts\u2019 School of Dance, Maria Hitchins, has joined her compatriot dancehall artist Ding Dong, in dispelling the notion that the Dancehall genre, comprises more bad than good content.<\/span><\/p>\n

She was responding on Twitter to a recent Onstage interview, in which Ding Dong decried the tendency of many prominent Jamaicans to fixate themselves on the small number of negatives in Dancehall, inflating them and giving them more prominence than the positive happenings, which far supersedes them.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI 100% endorse #DingDong\u2019s sentiments, which is that we do our own culture & people a disservice by pushing the misconception, to the world, that there is more \u2018bad\u2019 than \u2018good\u2019 within Dancehall, which is not true. Let\u2019s at least give equal prominence to positive experiences,\u201d Hitchins, who is the founder of Dancers of Jamaica noted.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the interview, which was aired two Saturdays ago, Ding Dong had told Onstage host Winford Williams that he was unhappy that Dancehall, which had done so much to pull Jamaicans out of poverty was being devalued at every opportunity, when the genre\u2019s good, far outweighs the bad.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes wi sell Jamaica wrong.\u00a0 Wi sell di music wrong sometimes becaw oonu always sell di negative part,\u201d the Nannyville native had said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSuh we haffi know how wi promote our culture and our music.\u00a0 There is so much good in Dancehall bro.\u00a0 Suh why everytime oonu talk bout couple negative inna it?\u00a0 Suh stop use the negative fi promote weh wi have.\u00a0 \u00a0Dancehall have so much good bout it.\u00a0 A whole heap a people live offa Dancehall every night, every single night.\u00a0 Dancehall is a blessing to we\u2026 promote the right part a it to the world,\u201d he added.<\/span><\/p>\n

In response to Hitchins commentary on Ding Dong\u2019s musings, there were several expressions of agreement.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFacts. Tired of meeting People that hear couple \u2018mainstream\u2019 dancehall songs and use it to write off and judge the whole genre. Dancehall offers so much more than what we generally promote,\u201d choppachulo said, while pistiondr added: \u201cDing Dong, totally agree with you , these ppl in media is promoting the worst of dance hall.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhy not just promote good? There was a time when only \u201cfit for airplay\u201d songs were played on radio. That didn\u2019t stop other songs from gaining prominence in the dancehall, stage shows, clubs, etc. \u201cRadio\u201d has grown & converged into something much bigger but the principle remains,\u201d jono_10 said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Others said that Dancehall should not be defined by the negative songs emanating from persons within the genre, as it has from long ago, already made its mark as influential and exceptional.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMaria, you know what the dance in dancehall has done for me and so many others, to the point where so many people these days sample the sounds\/music, dress, collab with Artistes and use dancehall moves in globally recognized productions. Timing,\u201d ryan rageriley said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI started listening to Dancehall music the day one of my friends taught me that everything in life is about perspective. It was like: \u201cOnce you perceive its funny and festive sides, you\u2019ll never go back!\u201d. And I got that lesson after he played me a Goofy\u2019s song,\u201d Laura said.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the most respected names in Dancehall, Agent Sasco, had voiced concern about the manner in which Dancehall has been put down by many people over the years.\u00a0 He had also revealed in April last year, that he had found it hard to forgive a primary school teacher of his who, many years ago belittled and demeaned his beloved and revered genre, and some of Jamaica\u2019s greatest lyricists.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/em>In 2017, Sasco was vindicated when the Jamaica National (JN) Foundation collaborated with Mathematics and Science Professor at Columbia University, Christopher Emdin, to launch the \u2018Science Genius Jamaica\u2019 education project, which fuses Dancehall music with Science, and hand-selected him as a Science Genius Ambassador, along with his compatriots Tanya Stephens, Wayne Marshall,\u00a0Tifa and producer Mikey Bennett to serve as judges and mentors to high school students, who were tasked to create songs under the theme \u201cWhere Science Meets Dancehall\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bennett, who was chief mentor and judge for the competition, had said using Dancehall music to make songs about various topics in the high school curriculum can be an effective teaching-learning tool and a catalyst to improved learning and grasping of concepts for various subjects, as has already been experienced by some teachers.<\/span><\/p>\n

A few months ago, Social Security Minister Karl Samuda had pointed out that Jamaican artistes are competent lyricists who should be encouraged to display their musical mettle, and that he was dissatisfied with the fact that there was monotony in the lyrical content that he was hearing in recent times.<\/span><\/p>\n

Samuda had charged his colleague, Entertainment Minister Olivia Babsy Grange, to use her charm and skills to encourage new Dancehall artists to step up their lyrical game, as uninspiring and mediocre content, was causing them to miss out on millions.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Acclaimed Jamaican dancer and lecturer at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts\u2019 School of Dance, Maria Hitchins, has joined her compatriot dancehall artist Ding Dong, in dispelling the notion that the Dancehall genre, comprises more bad than good content. She was responding on Twitter to a recent Onstage interview, in which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":3719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[260],"class_list":["post-3723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-breakingnews"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3723"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3724,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3723\/revisions\/3724"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}