Contents - Beth Lesser

it”. Deejay Crutches comments philosophically, “And that was it. No controversial
thing. Reggae music was a thing whe’, you could just enjoy yourself.
And the funny thing about it is, we achieve nothing out of it.”
When Prince Jazzbo reflects on the early days of dancehall, when everybody
was coming together and creating this new musical expression, he emphasizes
that the artists weren’t motivated by material gains. Like most other
deejays, he recalls that in his earliest days on the sound, “I never even thinking
of making records. I just love music. I never know I could make records much
less know about traveling and all like that. It wasn’t about that! It was about
loving the music. We play all night and never get money. But we get food
and we get drink and we get herb and people respect us. Everywhere you go,
people say, ‘Jazzbo! Where you a play tonight?’ And that was nice. You could
go anywhere. Everybody know you. You are not a ‘wrong do-er’. Bad man like
you. Police like you. Thief like you - everybody like you. You live free. You live
happy. It wasn’t about money. It wasn’t about going to foreign. It wasn’t about
making records. It was about loving the music. It was nice.”
To deejay Trinity, the old days were the time when people cared more
about their music than material processions, “We didn’t get no money up
front. We just love the music. That’s why the music turn out to be what it is,
in those days, that you can play it today. Cause we do the music out of we self,
like spiritually. You find, seh, the music live on”
Jack Scorpio sums it up, “The song what them never used to like in those
times, is the song what people, especially in my age group, want to hear.
Because what [music] is doing now – the younger generation is taking on to
it. The song what you used to hear in the eighties, [are the songs] what our
parents never used to want to hear. They wouldn’t want to hear Josie Wales.
They woulda rather hear Alton Ellis. Today, my age group people would want
to go and listen to Josie Wales or go to Josie Wales show. We have to just do
what we know is good, the good way.”
Clearly, despite Raetown and all the Booyakas and Oldies Nights, reggae,
and dancehall, is onto something new, charging ahead in a new direction.
Which is as it should be. U Roy, a veteran in the business, looks back on
his career with a hint of bewilderment, and a respect for the inevitability of
change. “I never did expect that, from the time that I was number one deejay,
that after 40 years, I would still be number one. You have to have youth come
fe replace me. More modern kind of style. The youth them have them style.
Them versatile and, yea, them creative. I respect the youth them to the max
whatever them come fe do. Them haf fe look them own thing. I see them and
me just tell myself, seh, I can’t envy them what them have, cause me have my
fair share of fame. Some [new] youth haf’ fe come, come get them fame too.”
Still, many who lived through the decade still feel that something very special
was left behind as music forged ahead into the new millennium. Deejay
Dennis Alcapone is saddened by the current state of dancehall. “The musicians,
now, they lost the respect of the public. In my days, nobody would
354 | RUB A DUB STYLE – The Roots of Modern Dancehall