Women dance in a scene from Vybz Kartel 'Lyrics in Overdrive' at Parks Road, St. Andrew, on Saturday. - COLIN HAMILTON
LAST SATURDAY NIGHT, I went to 'Lyrics in Overdrive 2' at Parks Road in rural St. Andrew. Rural it might be (go to Rock Hall, heading towards Bog Walk Gorge on the Sligoville Road, then turn left); behind time it is not.
The girls were dressed up in their finery, spikes, boots and all. There was a dancing crew, tight pants, white jackets and all, and when the video camera was turned on it was worries (try a pink Motorola Razr phone pushed up into the camera for size).
But there was more to the dance. There was a zinc fence, a tiny stage about three feet high, no fancy lighting, a couple rounds of gunshots when Bling Dawg, Jagwa and Vybz Kartel were performing and weed smoke everywhere.
EARLY DAYS
And I said yes.
It reminded me of my early days in dancehall, before it moved well uptown and became this vehicle for corporate sponsorship and filling hotels in Montego Bay during the slow season.
There was a time, long before my time, when dancehall was not a staged affair, when the deejay and the singer worked on the sound system and had to prove themselves to an audience which was not far away behind a fence, but could actually reach out and touch the performers without stretching too far to do it, as is the case at some major shows now.
(And reach out and touch Kartel they did.)
I am not one for keeping in the past and thinking that dancehall must not change. The artistes must earn and earn well, without facing the same state of poverty that many big names in the early days of the Jamaican music industry faced at the end of their careers and their lives. And to do that it has to be bigger than a zinc fence and open land thing.
Still, Saturday night reminded me of how much dancehall has changed and how much I miss the not so old days.
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