i'm not really a fan of reggae music, though i don't hate it. i was on wikipedia and managed to stumble on the reggae page. i was interested to read that homophobia is a recurring theme in reggae and dancehall music. i wanted to get the opinions of others on this matter. is it true, or is it just a few artists they are talking about? thanks
I've never heard of any homophobia in Reggae music. Remember that anyone can edit, add and change the info in Wikipidea. Its not a reliable source....
that's what i originally thought, but it just appears in so many articles that it seemed like too much to just be someone playing a joke and editing. of course, the editor may have misinterpreted the songs.
I dunno bro. Most Raggae is filled with love, peace and Rastafari...ism. If any of it condones homophobia it's probably on the religous side. Ive never noticed any tho
I'm sure that statement depends primarily on what is considered reggae and what reggae was talked about. remember its a diverse grouping of music like anything else. In all of the reggae I've listened too I've never encountered any form of hate.
I've never heard any homophobia in reggae. Then again, I don't really listen to dancehall, its not my style really. I like chill reggae like steel pulse and burning spear, all about peace and love dont you know.
There is a bit of homophobia in some reggae and dancehall.. ya just gotta look for it.. they obviously dont say "faggot" or "queer".. in jamacia "batty bwoy" means gay.. "batty" means Bottom in jamacian... its mostly because rasta uses alot of the christian beliefs such as the bible and therefor homosexuality is frowned apon
reggae can definatley be homophobic, its in relation to the rastafari and religious themes of homosexuality being ''ungodly'' this includes even bands like bad brains who are rastafarian homophobia in dancehall however is more similiar to homophobia in some rap , its more of a macho bullshit thing although some try to claim religious ideals, this is bullshit because most dancehall doesnt exactly express pure living
There is a HUGE amount of "homophobia" in reggae. Almost all the reggae artists agree that homosexuality is an abomination in the eyes of God but not every reggae singer feels the need to sing about it. You will hear it mostly in dancehall reggae with singers like Buju Banton and songs like "Boom-bye-bye" and the younger singers and Dj's. Reggae is not all love and peace. There are so many gangster reggae songs and the lyrics are extremely violent where they talk about shooting ants and flies and shoot out the cherry from out of the pie...LMAO: Bounty Killer, Beenie man, Buju-Banton, Spragga Benz...In addition to homophobia there is also taboo of oral and anal sex in this same crowd of dancehall reggae.
IMO it's more of a cultural thing; homosexuality is still illegal in Jamaica, and as someone else mentioned there is a big xtian contingent there plying their hate. I'm gay and love reggae; there's plenty out there that doesn't include any homophobic content. The stuff that does is mostly dancehall which I don't find as musically interesting anyway.
Jay Jay's post is dead on. A lot of this depends on what is meant by "reggae". I suspect that most posters here are referring to "roots" reggae and that's what most of them have been exposed to: Marley, Tosh, Burning Spear, etc. But dancehall styles are filled with sex and violence--and there's plenty of threats and taunts levelled at gays. And you don't have to dig for it either. Pick up any dancehall mixtape made in the past 20 years and it's in there. And it often borders on paranoia even. Remember when Bounty Killer did that song with No Doubt? Well, the drummer (I think?) got naked in the video. Bounty's rivals on the dancehall scene used this fact to question Bounty's sexuality. Bounty responded by refusing to perform the song with No Doubt from then on. And I remember a Beenie Man concert I went to once, where he went on this long tirade about how gays were spreading AIDS across Jamaica. Sickening. And then there's the lyrics. Dios mio! The anti-gay stuff is pretty ridiculous, but overall I happen to dig dancehall.
im a huge dancehall fan...love it,,,sizzla's my favouite all time artist.... but...it is seriously homophobic ands i hate that.. its so bad that many jamaican artists have been banned from the UK. last time i saw Buju there was a protest outside...its messed up.. however i have seen many black and white homosexuals in the caribbean, even in jamaica so i hope that when they preach to kill "chi chi men" it is'nt taken literally..
You beat me to it, very informative post. Although you forgot to mention Capleton who is one of the most outspoken dancehall artists when it comes to homosexuality. In Jamaica they use different terms to describe homosexuality and certain gay acts. Chi chi man and marma man are what they call gay men (there was a particularly infamous song by Capleton called "bun out the chi chi" in which he called for mass extermination of all gay people) and "playing number 2" is also used to describe gay sex. Even Sean Paul refers to this in some of his songs. Beenie man has mentioned hanging "lesbians wid a long piece of rope" and stated through song lyrics that "from you fuck batty den a coppa and lead" Coppa and lead meaning bullet. As Copper Scroll mentioned, Bounty Killa was criticised heavily for appearing in a No Doubt video in which a naked man was shown, even though he was no where near Bounty and it was a different scene. Some other dancehall artists have branded Mr Vegas "Mr Gaygas" because he has a slightly higher pitched voice than other singers. So the dancehall community will never accept homosexuality, but one man (Peter Tatchell) has made a slight difference with his campaign and has forced an apology from two artists Elephant Man and Vybz Kartel for including anti gay lyrics in many of their songs. As mentioned above, oral sex is just as criticised as anal sex in the Jamaican community and they have certain terms for people that participate in it, they call them "bowcats." There are even songs dedicated to killing bowcats as they are seen as dirty people over there. Anti gay lyrics in dancehall music are as common as the word love in love songs if you know the language. Like others have mentioned, homosexuality is illegal in Jamaica and seen as an abomination as most Jamaicans are deeply religious.
