The Jamaica Star :: Entertainment :: 'Badman' for charity

File: Ninja Man, Mavado and Munga Honourable

Sadeke Brooks, STAR Writer

Some artistes have taken on a 'badman' persona in their lyrics while their offstage deeds reflect a concern for community.

Many, however, find it difficult to reconcile the badman antics of some deejays with their acts of goodwill and regard their motives for doing so as just another publicity stunt.

Don Gorgon deejay Ninja Man, who is renowned for his 'badman' lyrics says he gives to charity for the love of his country and the need to see it progress.

"Mi neva buy a house 'cause mi give dat to people. Di whole a my career a deal wid charity. Mi donate my career to the whole country fi mek it better off. Mi do my thing a Marl Road and mi even go a Montego Bay and Dunkirk fi talk to school children. Even as far as Canada mi go fi talk to dem," he said.

Ninja Man recently started the The Jamaica All For Peace One Umbrella Movement through which he intends to help uplift Jamaican youth. He says he will be building six classrooms at the Jacks River Primary and installing 26 ceiling fans at Oracabessa Primary.

He says it is important that artistes give to charity because they want to and not to get some 'hype'.

"Some a dem a go roun' and a do some things like weh me do but the more the merrier. Wi nuh care weh dem a do as long as dem a do it fi mek the country better off. Some a dem a do it fi di limelight," he commented.

He believes that when artistes have worked to make one part of the country better, they should work harder to uplift another part.

Self-described 'Gangster Ras' Munga Honourable says that he too gives to charity. "You will get props (from giving to charity) and there is reward in that," he said.

He says he has given to his community in Islington, St Mary. Munga says he will soon put on a treat in the parish that will provide children with school supplies.

"It is good to receive but it is also good to give. Giving to charity is just being human. Gangsters are some of the most charitable persons. If it is feasible for our gangster or cultural artiste to give to charity, they should," added the Gangster Ras.

Munga and Ninja Man are not the only persons with 'badman' images who give to charity. Mavado who made the album Gangster for Life has also started his own charity movement called Connect Jamaica. Through this initiative he plans to donate computers to several schools across the island and to provide them with Internet connection.

University of the West Indies lecturer, Donna Hope, described artistes giving to charity as good. She noted that Jamaican artistes have always been giving back to their community of origin. She says that many of them have just started to make their activities public but this might be in an effort to make people see them in a different light.