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| by Paulet Biedermann |
Toronto, Canada: Reggae music is approaching middle age and as such should be enjoying the perks, privileges and entitlements that are part and parcel of middle age status. Is this the case? Even if you are looking at the genre through rose colored glasses, it’s impossible to ignore the remnants of a terminally ill entity that is ravished by years and years of abuse, mistreatment and corruption. The slow, steady, inevitable decline and ultimate demise of a drug addict presents an interesting analogy of reggae’s untimely demise..
Undoubtedly,
reggae’s fore fathers and pioneers are in awe as to the current plight of music
that is being released and its implication for the Jamaican culture. For those
pioneers who have passed on - Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Alton Ellis, Denis Brown,
Gregory Isaacs, Garnett Silk….to name a few -
quite likely they are turning over in their graves to see reggae music
used as a medium to debauch our culture by subverting our youths.
Most people who
are exposed to reggae and its evolution, would agree that it was born out of
the need for an appropriate platform to highlight and convey issues relating to
social consciousness. Yet, when you take a long, hard look at what is happening
today, one would be hard press to understand how reggae strayed from its
original roots of positive, uplifting messages and social consciousness which
was a platform for effecting change. Take for example the recent visa situation
that has impacted so many artiste. The
issue is that some dancehall artistes are banned from performing overseas.
Interestingly, it’s not only North America that has issues with the negative
and degrading messages that has become commonplace for dancehall lyrics, but
some of our sister countries in the Caribbean, including Trinidad and Tobago
and Barbados. These countries have banned some Jamaican dancehall acts from
performing on their soil. Mavado and Beenie Man were amongst artiste banned from performing in the USA.
Luckily for Beenie Man, his visa was recently reinstated. Several Caribbean and
North American countries have taken
similar stance and refused to allow these dancehall artistes on their soil. Can
you blame them? Absolutely not! At least some segments of our society continue
to take pride in preserving a positive, healthy and morally conscious culture
by keeping out undesirables; no matter the form or medium.
Another salient
contributing factor to reggae/dancehall’s already fragile state is the fraudulent
award shows that have been springing up internationally, often disguised as
legitimate social functions. Let’s take a look at two of the most recent award
shows, namely the International Reggae and World Music Award Show (IRAWMA)
spearheaded by Ephraim Martin and The Canadian Reggae Music Achievement Award
show by the late Delroy Sterling, held
annually at the Jamaican Canadian
Association in Toronto.The final show was on June 4th 2011.
The IRAWMA is 30 years old and is one of the
longest running award shows in the industry. Given recent reports in the press,
it could be mistaken for a 30 days old reggae award show. The show, which was
held in Trinidad and Tobago for the first time in 2011, was plagued with
numerous problems and in fact, had experienced its most disastrous staging to date. All that could have gone wrong went wrong.
International reggae artistes contracted to perform didn’t due to issues with
compensation. It is alleged that one of the most contentious issue was that the
headlining act was being paid four times as much as the other reggae artists.
Most of whom have attained international status as performers. So of course,
when the other reggae acts got wind of this wage disparity, things jumped from bad to worse. This along with
poor marketing and promotional efforts resulted in extremely poor attendance.
Sponsors were disgruntled due to the lack of adequate planning, organization
and implementation of the show. The host country will not be inviting IRAWMA
back any time soon.
Nominees and award
recipients failed to show up for the event. At the end of the day, the sponsors
and artistes were the biggest losers. The sponsors participated on the premise
that the show was legitimate and would be beneficial to them in some way or another,
only to find out that they were duped. The artistes who were contracted to
perform have to be very mindful of tarnishing their reputation. It was reported that some artistes missed
flight or couldn’t get visa or police clearance to attend the show, which
certainly can impact the artiste-fan relationship adversely. Because most
artistes care about their reputation and their fans, apologetic press releases
are common place and always seem to follow these events. After the 2011 IRAWMA,
singer Gramps Morgan issued a statement apologizing to his fans for not
performing at the show in T and T because contractual commitments were breached
by event organizers. This action warrants kudos on his part as he ensured that
his fans know that they are important to him. Repeated attempts to contact
IRAWMA’s producer Mr. Martin by this author has been unsuccessful.
The Canadian
counterpart,The Reggae Music Achievement Award show, produced by the late Delroy
Sterling however, takes first prize for the most blatantly,
contemptuous reggae award show in terms of what is right or honorable. Members
of the reggae fraternity, community members and some sponsors are aware of the
unscrupulosity with which he organizes and implements the show. In fact, it’s
an almost pathetic
resemblance of what a legitimate award show is about. Suffice it to say that
the surreptitious nature of
the Canadian reggae award show has been evident since its inception five years
ago. What makes this show the most mendacious and troublesome of all, is that
the cloak and dagger approach is entrenched in its very fabric and is evident
throughout the entire process from the nomination to the actual award
presentation.
Authenticity and
transparency are alien words to the Reggae Music Award show and most community
members and industry insiders are aware of this; sadly, it almost appears as if
this is an acceptable norm within our
community. Not that we are all corrupt, but we allow things to go unchallenged.
Ever since its inception, rumors have been surfacing with regards to the show’s
improbity and integrity. A common perception is that nepotism is rampant for
this particular show. Albeit, friends as oppose to relatives. It rewards those who may be able to grease a few
palms. Here are a couple examples of the kinds of factual incidences that
witnesses can attest to: Some nominees are not acknowledged, regardless of
their accomplishments or contribution to the genre.
In 2011, this author was approached by a group
of individuals headed by Mrs. Donetta Brown complaining that they have repeatedly
nominated an artist and over two months went by and her nomination was not
acknowledged by the event organizer. They visited the RMAA website daily for
two months to no avail as the website didn’t reflect this artist nomination.
They noted that several new nominees were added continuously. They sent several
emails to founder Delroy Sterling (they kept copies of these communication to
validate their claim) and no response was forth coming. Eventually they had approached an individual
to assist them in going public with the issue in case others were having
similar experiences. A letter was sent to Sterling questioning the legitimacy
of the show and as well as querying its exclusivity. Following this, the artiste
was included in 2 of the 3 categories in which she was nominated . The standing
joke was, “she could get a million votes she will never win” So true.
Some nominees were
not notified of their nomination, as is the norm and not invited to attend the
award show. More concerning though, is the fact that part of the sponsorship
monies are supposed to be allotted for the statuettes, artiste compensation,
promotions and overall, to assist in financing the show was not utilized as
such. In some cases, nominees were asked to pay entrance fees. Reports are that
some performers and musicians were not paid. One such individual, Mr. Green, aka Grand Master Rosa, the owner
of Soul to Soul Sound System. He worked at the Award show and was not
compensated. As a matter of fact, he was
not even given a partial payment. The individuals who assisted him had to be
paid by Mr. Green, out of pocket. To date, Mr. Green was not paid a cent by the
show’s producer, Delroy Sterling. When
contacted, Mr. Green had this to say:
“This is terrible. How can this man hire my services and at the end of
the show I did not receive a dime.” “I am very upset as I had to pay the guys
who helped me, out of my pocket.” First of all he gives his friends the awards
and the real people who have actually achieved and accomplished something in
the industry are not recognized; No wonder the industry’s reputation is so
messed up.” These comments touch two salient issues: Workers not being paid for
their services and nepotism.
Speaking to someone
who attended the award show all five years, she said there was not one single
year that all the artistes were compensated according to the contractual
agreement. In 2010, Frankie Paul’s manager got into an altercation with Mr.
Sterling just before Paul was to take the stage. Frankie Paul almost didn’t go
on stage. In 2011, headliner George Nooks was reportedly not paid and God knows
who else. When contacted, Mr. Nooks had this to say: “I came all the way from
Jamaica to Toronto to perform on the show and the promoter did not even give me
per diem.” A friend of mine gave me $150.00 and that is the only way I could
eat a food”. This is totally wrong, you cant hire some one to work and then you
don’t pay them?” Mr. Nooks was very upset but would not elaborate when asked if
he will be taking legal actions. I made
several attempts to contact Mr. Sterling shortly after the show in 2011 but he did not return my calls or
emails. I managed to contact him by phone once but he hang up the phone when I
started asking about the award show. The sponsors need to do their homework
before delving out hard cold cash to some of these events. That said, I am mindful that there are tons of legitimate events that will utilize
the sponsorship appropriately for the benefit of the community.
~contributed~