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Underground > Radio & Music >

Gash Dem and Light Dem

  
 
Char Aina
16:15 / 18.01.07
something makes me feel like i should hate this call to arms for the righteous murderer, this chant and sing dancehall banger that suggests, as the title gives away, that some folks need slashed and burned.
it's aggresive as fuck, and it seems to ask the listener to take arms a against a sea of troublemakers and, by cutting and burning, end them.
it's been banned by the Irie, and Zip radio station after it was suggested as innapropriate by the Broadcasting Commission, and that seems to have had the 'cop killer' effect, at least in jam-down and TnT clubland.

i have to admit, none of that really mattters, nor is it anything to do with what i love about the tune. i found out all this when trying to find out more about it, having heard it on one of my pandora channels.

the vocal is so damn uplifting and righteous that it gets my reggae senses buzzing like a hefty dose of uncut bass off the back of a truck, and it has had me singing along every damn time. i've even been throwing my hands in the fucking air, and i'm at my computer desk.

now, chuck fenda has been on a bill with some of jamaica's most proud homophobes. as far as i can see he hasnt done anything of that nature himself, but i'm not sure i wouldnt still love this song if it advocated the stabbing and burning of me and my queer brethren.
chuck has said that the violence of the song is metaphorical, and that he doesnt really want anyone to set fire to anybody.
he would, though.
it doesnt sound like metaphor to me, but then i don't know him and so i'll take his word for now.

like i say, though, i don't think i would care if it wasnt.

this song is single handedly turning me from a staunchly right-on reggae only' consumer into someone who is... well, less bothered, i guess.
i'm not sure where this ends.

while i can't see myself ever being a skrewdriver fan, i'm already into some metal and hip hop with dubious content.
was i always being hypocritical denying myself the dodgier reggae, especially when i don't seem to filter out dodgy attitudes in other styles of music? i've lost count of the records i have that say 'faggot' or 'bitch' somewhere. why is reggae diferent? is it because of the tracks that incite folks to murder?
i dont know.

what i do know is that one reggae vocal has totally rocked me silly all day and all yesterday, and has rocked my world view a little with it. there's no explicit homophobia in chuck's soaring lyrics, as far as i can tell, but he does want to express murderous dislike of the unrighteous.
it doesnt take much to imagine the song appealing to the same folks who might want to enact the lyrics to some boutny killer or beenie man, whatever that counts for.

some of the lyrics?



V1-
a big man like you
rape off a 6 yr old baby
a big man like you
pop off yuh gun and put nine pon a likkle ole lady
a big man like you
bunn dung a school and a talk bout yuh mad sick and crazy
but when GOD hol yuh
nuh if nor nuh but nuh badda tell almighty bout maybe
[...]
chorus:
gash dem and light dem
for all the negative vibes weh dem a bring
gash dem and light dem
mi come fi mash up and wreck up dem senseless killing
gash dem and light dem
bwoie affi reverse wid dem bag a gun ting
gash dem and light dem
stand guard and come out a di wages of sin

V3-
dunce bat yuh nuh si seh yuh nuh smawt
come a tell mi seh yuh don't have nuh hawt
a long time wi a preach and a talk
and a tell yuh gi di politics a walk
but yuh a tell mi yuh nuh fraid fi pop it off
caah yuh love hear di big dog a bawk


(i skipped some because i can't get a transcription and i have no idea what he was saying in verse two)



i know a lot of you guys like reggae.
i know almost all my friends love reggae.
it seems to be a common attitude(mine included) that homophobic murder-chant reggae is to be frowned upon and left unlistened and unbought and, with the exception of one DJ i know, nobody i'm close to will play anything by known homophobic artists out(he has some ragga vocals and some ragga drum and bass that he does play out, if he's not forbidden by the night's promoters. i've asked him not to play that shit before).

now, i know chuck isnt being homophobic here, but he has been picked to run alongside artists who open their show with 'no apologies' and who incite almost as much as they opine, and he hasnt distanced himself in any way from their attitude. my point isnt that this song is homophobic, or that mr fenda is. i don't know if he is, hey.

nah, the point chuck highlighted for me was that he's basically advocating a pretty hideous set of actions, and i don't give a shit bhecause the tune makes me want to sing and dance.

so what makes him different from his compatriots? is homophobia special to me in some way? but i have homphobic records. is it when murder and homphobia meet on wax? or am i perhaps on some bandwagon of scorn? is hating homophobic reggae something i've internalised rather than decided? is there some racism inherent in this, some 'they do things differently' attitude in my head that i havent spotted?

i'm wondering where my attitude to this issue is going to end up, but fuck all that for a minute.
the song is fucking awesome!

has anyone else heard it?
 
 
Char Aina
21:40 / 18.01.07
hm.
i've been searching again, and i'm finding references to this tune that go back to 2003.
unless some folks are backdating their blogs, it's an old tune. i'm wondering why i didnt find it earlier, and i'm wondering why the BC would recommend the song be kept off the air this far after the release.

more research needed, i reckon.
 
 
illmatic
14:24 / 19.01.07
Toks, I can't see what is particulary controversial about the song (after a mere one listen, admittedly). The chorus is not exactly heavy by reggae standards and reminds me of nothing more than the calls to "beat them with the rod of correction" or "whip dem Jah Jah" that you hear in a lot of 70s rootical material. The postive content of the rest of the song outweighs this (metaphorical?) call to arms surely?

True, Jamaican MCs aren't exactly renowned for their subtley when they don't like something - but, so what, that's part of the power of music. to me this song fits squarely in the conscious/roots tradition.
 
 
Char Aina
14:31 / 19.01.07
the song isnt that controversial, but it made me think.

it made me think about my attitude towards the stuff i condemn from the world of reggae. as i said, i have folk expressing homophobic attitudes on record, and have similar incitement to violence on record.
i actually went looking to see if chuck was a homophobe when i heard the song and was in love with it, and it made me wonder why. thsi song is no worse than a lot, but it was a jumping off point for my thinking about the bigger picture.
i think i might be being wierd about reggae, and i don't really understand why.

did you like the song, by the way?
 
 
Char Aina
14:34 / 19.01.07
slightly different point - the rod of correction is clearly a metaphor, as is the whippinig jah gives. same can be said about some of the fire that gets mentioned in relation to sinners - it's a purifying flame, buring away all evil and sin.

'gash dem and light dem' doesnt seem to be a metaphor for some mystical transformation or punishment, and i think that's why it got the flak from the BC.

it feel more like an actual incitement to violence to me than folks asking jah to burn down babylon, or singing about the need for a fire in the vatican.
 
 
illmatic
14:49 / 19.01.07
did you like the song, by the way?

Yeah, it's great. Not as good as Driver by Buju though, check the "Orange Street" thread.

gash dem and light dem' doesnt seem to be a metaphor for some mystical transformation or punishment, and i think that's why it got the flak.

I don't know mate, the statement didn't strike me as in any way unusual or inconsistent with the any conscious/dancehall stuff I've heard.

I dislike the homophobic stuff I've heard though. Seems to bring home the nastiness of homophobia in a really viseceral way. The implict violence of "Gash Dem" doesn't hit home like that.
 
 
Char Aina
14:51 / 19.01.07
i've got 'driver a' on heavy rotation as well.
it's a banger.
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
21:29 / 19.01.07
Not heard the song... but I don't see it as being any worse than, say New Model Army's "Vengeance" (which I love), which doesn't seem to tip people's "bad shit to say" radar.

I'd like to hear it, actually... anyone wanna YouSendIt or anything?
 
 
Char Aina
21:41 / 19.01.07
i don't have it, unfortunately.
everywhere i've tried to get it seems to be... sold out.
i've been listening to five different pandora.com channels, all for various dancehall tunes or artists, and keep hearing both that and driver a by rotating station and skipping.
if you have a pandora account i coudl share a channel with you, or you could make one of your own.
if you don't have a pandora account, i heartily recommend getting one.

i've had to sit throuh other stuff between listens, but i fucking love reggae, so it hasnt really been a hardship.
i heard boombastic again for the first time in years earlier today. hotstepper too, although that was less exciting. i also discovered a tune called 'jamaican in new york' that kicks the arse out of sting's original.

"i don't drink coffee i drink roots, my dear..."
 
 
illmatic
07:06 / 20.01.07
Stoats, get thee to Youtube.
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
08:53 / 20.01.07
Hey, I like that.
 
 
Char Aina
09:17 / 20.01.07
i didnt even think of youtube.
cool video.

i'm especially into the mad rasta wizard on the mound.
 
 
Kiltartan Cross
15:49 / 21.01.07
With Stoatie on the "Vengeance" angle, definitely.

I guess it comes down to your opinion on capital punishment and your opinion on vigilantiism (vigilantism? v1g1l4nt15m?). If you're of the opinion that no crime deserves the death penalty (or that the prevention of crime by killing people is right out), then it's a no-no. If you can countenance there being circumstances in which killing some malefactor is %right%, expedient, or whatever, and you believe in some random members of the general public's right and ability to decide who to bump off - as opposed to, or in addition to, the right and ability of an organised legal system, then it's cool.

That said, it doesn't seem like too big a deal, least not half-the-world-and-a-youtube away. There's a loss of immediacy and all, and if it's hypocritical, or a betrayal of principles, to like it in an abstract way for the music, it's not much of a hypocrisy. Maybe. Depends how "real" the artist is to the listener, perhaps.

(Personally, I think the song's ok, but I could take it or leave it, musically. Sorry!)
 
  
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