Dancehall Music Has Come Of Age
Dancehall music has come of age in the Ghanaian music circles. It is a popular genre and is widely patronized among upcoming musicians in the country.
The Ghana-made dancehall musicians who have strived in making the genre appealing to the public include the likes of Bandana, Samini, Abrewa Nana, Yoggi Doggi, Root-I, Stonebwoy, Jupiter, Kaakie, Regge Ranks and General Marcus among others.
Dancehall is a genre of Jamaican popular music https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_music that originated in the late 1970s. Initially, dancehall was a sparser version of reggae https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggae than the roots https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaican class, which had dominated much of the 1970s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roots_reggae
In the mid-1980s, digital instrumentation became more prevalent, changing the sound considerably, with digital dancehall (or “ ragga https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ragga “) becoming increasingly characterized by faster rhythms.
However, the upcoming awards (Bass-Awards 2013) which has been tagged only to musicians with interest of dancehall seeks to deplore the efforts of making sure the type of-genre comes to-make an-impart in the development of the music industry.
The awards programme, according to the organisers, takes off on July 5, 2013, when the Accra Sports Stadium comes alive with performances from international dancehall and reggae fusion star, Elephant Man and popular Nigerian Reggae star, General PYPE at the Bass Awards Nominees Jam.
They will be performing alongside Ghanaian and Bass Awards nominees; including Samini, Stonebwoy, Jupiter, Kaakie and General Marcus.
Born O'Neil Bryan in Kingston Jamaica, Elephant Man had his first international recognition when he signed a contract with Puma for his single 'All Out' which was used for the 2004 Puma Olympics Campaign.
In 2003, Elephant Man hit the US charts with his hit single 'Pon De River' and again in 2004 with 'Jook Gal' which featured Twista, YoungBloodz and Kiprich off the Good 2 Go Remix album.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with this paper, one of Ghana's best Desk Jokes (DJ) who has campaigned the playing of such music genre in the country Dada Bosco has observed that the dancehall music is a conscious music which embraces good lyrical content and culture towards encouraging the masses.
According to him, sexually violent and bodelicous lyrical content are not allowed in circles of outdoor performances in Jamaica where the music originates from.
'The police will pick you up when such sexually exploited and violent words are used on stage whiles performing to masses of public', he stressed.
It could be said that, the awards scheme for this year's awards made efforts to disqualify all kinds of music which has such explicit lyrical content in them.
Conscious ragga
Meanwhile, the 1992, the international backlash to Banton's violently anti-homosexual “Boom Bye-Bye”, and the reality of Kingston's violence which saw the deaths of deejays Pan Head and Dirtsman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirtsman saw another shift, this time back towards Rastafari and cultural themes, with several of the hardcore slack ragga artists finding religion, and the “conscious ragga” scene becoming an increasingly popular movement.
A new generation of singers and deejays emerged that harked back to the roots reggae era, notably Garnett Silk , Rocker T https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rocker_T&action=edit&redlink=1 , Tony Rebel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Rebel , Sanchez https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanchez_%28singer%29 , Luciano https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luciano_%28singer%29 , Anthony B https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_B and Sizzla https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sizzla . Some popular deejays, most prominently BujuBanton https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buju_Banton and Capleton https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capleton , began to cite Rastafari and turn their lyrics and music in a more conscious, rootsy direction. Many modern dancehall Rasta artists identify with Bobo Ashanti https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garnett_Silk . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mansions_of_Rastafari