International stars turn to gay bashing ......

This is not the first time although the article in the Star gave that impression, a simple Google check and voila! Missy Elliot for example in 2005 from the cookbook album where the record company was forced to pull the album from the shelves and re-release the set with other songs that were in the inventory, she then went on a media blitz to try to rectify the situation.

Dancehall music was once painted as hate music by the homosexual community due to the fact that artistes were known to release music denouncing the homosexual lifestyle. Following several appearance cancellations overseas, players in the local music industry began to feel the pressure in their pockets as a result of a strong gay lobby.

Tyga 

Ironically, the trend to lash out against the homosexual lifestyle is now the practice of some foreign artistes says the Star News but they are so off the mark on this one.

American rapper Tyga last year released a dancehall-influenced song titled 1 of 1 in which he denounced homosexuality in one specific line, stating that he was not into gay antics.

"Mi nuh love for dem b*&*y boy antics, gonna let me pull choppers (guns) out the attic," he said.

ENFORCE HIS MASCULINITY

Chris Brown 

Tyga's frequent collaborator, Chris Brown, also pulled a similar stunt in his verse on Konshens' Bruck Off Yu Back remix, where, he too, felt the need to enforce his masculinity. But Chris Brown seems to forget that he has done housemusic/EDM/Disco songs which is mostly targeting LGBTQ audiences and who follow him despite his antics and troubles; if he was so intent on 'burning out' gays he and or his team should not do other materials that are gay friendly, or maybe what the record company sometimes give artists from songwriters shopping materials he may be obligated to record them as contracts are in place.

"Mi nuh deal wid nuh ch*ch*man thing, gyal bruck off yu back mi wanna feel the ocean," he sang.

Outspoken member of the dancehall community Foota Hype says that foreign artistes pay attention to Jamaican music and know what it takes to gain respect from Jamaicans.

"They know wrong from right, and the labels will give them the green light because they know it's a song for the dancehall fanbase. Konshens song don't have nothing to do with that topic, but Chris Brown knows that it's a major topic in Jamaica, so that is why he did it. I am sure there won't be no backlash because it's Chris Brown. If it was a likkle Jamaican artiste who do that, it would have been a problem," he said.

RAW AND UNFILTERED STATE

The selector-producer said that Tyga and Chris Brown's actions is proof that dancehall in its most raw and unfiltered state can still break overseas.

Cobra the 'Flex Time To Have Sex' DJ

"Just mek music and release it. Look pon Press Trigger by Cobra and Gimmie Di Light by Sean Paul. They never made those songs to crossover, but they still did because foreign always a pay attention," he said.

For Hitmaker, "it's a way to fit in since dancehall is known as a genre that was homophobic."

The producer said that the likes of Chris Brown and Tyga "are smart enough not to put violence towards gays, and they used words that are less harmful".

Hitmaker further said that Tyga and Chris Brown should try and help elevate dancehall instead of trying to be part of what is seen as negative in the international community.

A flashback from the aforementioned Missy 'battyman' issue, WHY MISSY CHANGED HER TUNE FOR US was sent to me some years ago by Angus Batey

the Cookbook CD cover

If Missy Elliott hadn’t met Angus Batey, the first lady of hip-hop’s latest album might have been her last.

At the age of 34, Missy Elliott has become the biggest female star in the macho world of rap. She has sold 12 million albums, written and .produced for Mariah Carey and Destiny’s Child and  has shared equal billing with Madonna on an advertising campaign for Gap. She's not the sort to change her tune for anyone. Except, it seems for The Knowledge.

“I'm glad you're telling me that”, says Elliott. I have just informed her that the phrase "batty boy", which appears on two tracks on her sixth album, The Cookbook, might not do her any favours with some of her fans.  “It's a good thing that I'm going to get a chance to go in there and correct this”, she says, eyes widening as the full implications of the homophobic expression sink in. 

She claims to be unaware of the phrase's meaning: “It's just something my Jamaican friends say to each other, and I was saying it imitate them”; nor does she know that several dancehall artists have been banned from performing for inciting violence against gays. “I would never want to offend anybody”, Elliott insists, vowing to remove the lyrics. “If that's the case, than I have to switch that up”.

We're talking in an upmarket hotel in Montego Bay, Jamaica, where Elliott has been playing a work-in-progress version of the record to invited journalists. Several guest stars have yet to record their parts and, as our little chat has demonstrated, she may need to change some lyrics. The promotional cart seems to be running in front of the musical horse.

It is strange to hear someone at the sharp end of such a costly enterprise admitting that she doesn't know what some of her own lyrics mean. And if anyone should be sensitive to charges of homophobia it is Missy Elliott, whose sexuality has long been the subject of rumours - springing from the fact that she is single. She believes she has shied away from relationships because she saw her mother beaten by her father when she was a child.

“She was so dependent on my father and felt she could do nothing without him,” she recalls.  “But when she got up and left, she was stronger than ever before.  I leant from that.  I think I’m happiest by myself.  I know that’s crazy - people don’t wanna die alone!  But most of my friends are in relationships and they’re miserable!  They call me on the phone, like: ‘He did this!’ ‘She did that!’ I’m like ‘Wow!’ is anybody happy?’”

Another thing that makes Elliott an unlikely purveyor of hate rhymes is her status as a role model to another minority in her genre.  Women are still massively under-represented in all areas of hip-hop.  Until Elliott’s emergence in the late 1990s, women in rap videos were either groupies or pole-dancers.  Over night, Elliott made it hip to be a woman in control.

One of the few rappers to captivate an audience among the chattering classes, Elliott intrigued as much for how she looked as how she sounded.  Her 5ft 2in (1.52m) frame is now 5st (30kg) lighter than when she donned an inflatable black plastic suit and stuck herself in front of a fish-eye lens for the video to The Rain in 1997, but she’s still larger than life.  She’s an artist who has built a career on turning her idiosyncrasies into gold-dust.  “That gained me fans.  Especially women of that size.  They loved my confidence. It was like: ‘She’s big and she’s proud about it,’” says Elliott of the response to her early look.

She has played the men at their game, some of her lyrics rivalling her more ribald contemporaries for libidinous  content.  “People say: ‘You talk about sex a lot’,” she giggles.” and I reply: ‘Wow, I do, don’t I.’  You would think I’d been locked up in a cell!”

Elliott’s strongest suit has always been her creativity.  With her production partner, Tim “Timbaland Mosley, she is widely credited with re-invigorating hip-hop in the late 1990s.  The pair’s signature sound, memorably crystallised on the 2001 single Get Your Freak On, added samples from Asian music to wall-shaking beats, bring a space-age sheen to a genre that had lapsed into formula.

She won’t speculate on whether her slimmed-down image has had any effect on her music, yet on Under Construction (2003), her first album after shedding the pounds, she also trimmed her sound, reining in some of her excesses.  It’s her best work.  The Cookbook seems its closes relative, Elliott feeling the record returns her forcefully to her hip-hop roots. 

“We went so far left that I didn’t want to lose people,” she says.  “I look at Prince - a genius so far ahead that he started to make music that was too far left for us to understand”.

The Cookbook is designed to enrapture the hip-hop fan with paeans to old-school legends, while continuing to  challenge preconceptions.  She  has even fulfilled an ambition by working with the Neptunes’ Pharrell Williams, whose production on On & On works on both levels: a devastating hip-hop track which, unusually, was constructed without drum sounds.

But is this changeable artist consistent when it comes to her promises?  A month later a copy of the finished album arrives at The Knowledge: the offending lyrics have been removed.  “You bring it to my attention?  You’ll never hear it,” she had vowed, breaking into a cackle.  “Never.”  Missy Elliott’s word is clearly her bond.  The Cookbook is out now on Elektra.

ENDS

Peace & tolerance

H