Dancehall veteran Tony Rebel recently made an impassioned plea to his musician brethren, calling for them to clean up their acts, and, more specifically, their explicit lyrics. As the Jamaica Observer reports, Rebel claims that dancehall's often controversial lyrics are largely to blame for slumping album sales in America and Europe, saying ""You can't preach violence in music and expect the people of Germany to accept it. Because Hitler already show them what violence is. You cannot teach the French and the Americans about sex. A dem mek it." Speaking at the launch of his own Rebel Salute event, the artist called for artists to stop singing about violence and sex, and return to the music's traditional, carefree, feel-good roots--what he calls "the real authentic side of Jamaica music."
Tony Rebel certainly has cause for concern--last year, no single artist sold more than 80,000 dancehall records in the US, and international reggae charts feature primarily non-Jamaican reggae stars at the top of their lists. Whether or not the lyrical content of the music is to blame for the decline, though, is debatable. Deejay Ra Deal last week placed the blame squarely on the managerial side, saying that record companies have done a poor job of promoting and managing their young stars, and haven't done enough to combat bad publicity. Regardless of who exactly is to blame, it's pretty clear that there's a serious problem in the Jamaican music industry right now--and people are starting to take notice.
