The devil has the tightest jams

A long time ago, I was the type of person who would hunt down bands that no one I knew knew about. I still do that now, I guess, but thanks to the wonders of the internet, I mostly leave the hunting to other folk and am happy to be the scavenger who picks up what other people have already left out. This way of living has been good to me - without spending absurd amounts of money, I've been able to amass a sizable collection of grime and dancehall tracks. I was initially drawn to this stuff for the same reason that I was drawn to punk and hardcore in my, uh, early teens - because it's new and exciting, and has an unstoppable seriousness to it that punk lacks after fifteen years of exposure. However, unlike punk which drew me into its ideas and general scene, these types of music a) exist in very specific area which are not accessible to yours truly without a boat or airplane, and b) the ideas they express are actually kind of reprehensible.

Figure 1. T.O.K.

An example: a couple of months ago I stumbled onto DJ / Rupture's blog, which is a generally well-informed, intelligent take on life, music and politics made by someone much more notable than me. On said blog, there are occasionally mp3s posted, and one of the first was a track by a dancehall group called "T.O.K.", with some vague disclaimer about the general moral awfulness of the group. The track itself was excellent, exotic and rhythmic, wonderful singing, etc., although the lyrics are some juvenilia about sex. Whatever, I've certainly slackened in non-P.C. tolerance over the years, no biggie. So, a couple of days later, I download a couple more T.O.K. tracks off of Limewire, and they're all equally good, lots of great harmonies, off kilter beats, all the things that float my boat of late. One standout track has a hook that's almost choral; completely impossible to dislodge from the head, but totally unintelligible to me. After a couple of days, I give up on trying to figure out the patois and look up the lyrics. Chorus in question is
From dem a par inna chi chi man car
Blaze di fire mek we bun dem!!!! (Bun dem!!!!)
From dem a drink inna chi chi man bar
Blaze di fire mek we dun dem!!!! (Dun dem!!!!)
which clears up nothing. Eventually, I determine that 'chi chi man' = 'faggot', and the whole song fits neatly into place; it's a very pretty, catchy song either condemning (with the figurative interpretation) or advocating the murder of (literal interpretation) gays.

I guess I had heard things about how some dancehall singers were getting banned from playing in England for reason of their lyrics, so I shouldn't have been so surprised. But it's in fitting with the general decline of myself and my political, astute cohorts; some friends with Masters degrees, perfectly respectable day jobs and fully functioning brains find themselves spending money on cds by Scandinavian black metal bands that dress like monsters, advocate white supremacy, and in some cases have members who have actually murdered people. What is it about evil (or at least, evil ideas) that has such appeal to people who are more or less goody-goodies? Are the violence and intolerance-soaked lyrics of current dancehall MCs a reaction to all the positivity and comfortable spirituality of older forms of Jamaican music, in the same way that Black Metal is obviously a reaction to liberal and paternal Norwegian society? And what does this say about me, that I'm listening to the music of the underclass that's advocating things that I would be sickened to overhear?

I don't know, but at least I'm not alone. I stumbled into a blog of some European fellow a couple of days ago that hosts a bunch of music, ranging from the anarchist art / punk / industrial band that he was a member of in the 1980s to a handful of nicely done DJ mixes, one of which contains a good chunk of "Chi Chi Man". Although I've not had the heart to intentionally listen to it again, you have to admit that it's a pretty bumping tune.