By Tamara King,Staff Reporter
Elephant Man
POPULAR DEEJAY Elephant Man is at the centre of a storm of controversy.
Elephant Man is being accused of duplicity by Masayo Yasuda, (whose first language is not English) a native of Japan whose creative input he requested to produce a song entitled Anaconda. The song, although not yet officially released, has been getting significant airplay.
Yasuda, in a letter faxed to The Gleaner, contended that she had been tricked and coerced into 'collaborating' with Elephant Man on the song. She said that she did not grasp fully the context in which the word 'anaconda' was being used. An anaconda is a non-venomous snake that kills its prey by suffocating it in its coils. The giant anaconda can attain the length of 5 to 9 metres (16.4 to 29.5 feet). However, locally, the word has come to be associated with boasts of virility and the size of the penis.
Yasuda now thinks that she displayed 'the most disgraceful behaviour' towards her countrymen. She is eager to make up for her 'betrayal'.
"Therefore I would like to make an official statement for the recovery of the dishonour which (has been) brought by Elephant Man against all of Japanese and Chinese nations," she wrote.
Yasuda said that Elephant Man took her and a friend to a studio where the song was being recorded and told her that he wanted Japanese lyrics (with an accent) to be inserted in his song in order to 'spice up his tune'. She then asked him to explain the meaning of anaconda and he reportedly said that it has 'very good meaning'.
According to Yasuda, "I numerously requested for an alteration after listening to the tune on-air, but it was refused." She wrote: "He wants his tune to hit in Japan, but by this fooling and disrespectable way we are sure that his reputation will lose and some Japanese might not listen to his tune again and forever. Also, those worst grade of DJ music will affect to increase numbers of crime, assault and robbery against Japanese and all the tourists. Because these tunes give image of that Japanese and others Asians males are physically weak and mentally coward to stand against those insensible Jamaicans."
When The Gleaner
contacted Elephant Man, he insisted that Yasuda was fully aware of what she was doing and that she read it directly from a piece of paper he had given her. However, the deejay apologised for any hurt he may have caused.
June, a Japanese native who works for the Japanese magazine Strive, and who also received a copy of the letter, said that the song is disrespectful. She contended that the song gives the impression that Japanese women come to Jamaica only for sex.
