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Deejay Chino pointsout that Assassin goes to college and has not lost credibility.

Kavelle Anglin-Christie, Staff Reporter

How often have you seen an interview along these lines?

Interviewer: What do you think about the role of artistes in society?

Artiste: Well yuh done know, di man dem fi straighten out di bung bang and just rrrr di ting and mek di man dem know say a time fi mek di people dem know how di ting set up.

And you are left stranded ...

Joy, an avid dancehall fan, says she detests artistes who cannot express themselves. These artistes, armed with their 'rrrs', are more often than not less educated, but strangely enough, they command more respect than some of their more well-spoken peers in dancehall culture.

"In the dancehall circles, it's all about the thug life image and we tend to associate less educated people with that. The more intelligent or educated an artiste is, they are less likely to be grouped in that category. If you notice how they behave, they are the ones who are less likely to get into a physical clash, so the ones like Wayne Marshall who is a good artiste, you don't really see them as no hardcore artiste ... But you also have people like Cobra who is an architect but has proven himself in the streets and people know he is also intelligent. It's rare in dancehall," said Joy.

Patrick Gaynor of the duo Twin of Twins, which came up with what some may call an 'out-of-the-box' idea to imitate persons in popular culture in a mock-radio show setting, says, "Because of the lack of knowledge, people tend to misinterpret a lot of things that other people do, and though in reality it's simple, that holds down the music. Another thing is that people don't know much about contracts and don't know how to interact with a lot of people. Instead, they feel comfortable just standing on a corner and crushing weed and saying, 'yow mi naw do dis and go deh so, after mi a nuh nerd'. There is nothing wrong with education."

One thing Gaynor points out is that the stigma associated with being educated didn't originate in the dancehall. "It goes beyond dancehall; it's just the world itself. They stigmatise what you may call being bright as nerdy and stupid and dunce and fool as being fashionable and trendy. Look at people like Donald Trump and Bill Gates. I'm sure when they were younger and in school, girls never wanted anything to do with them. They were just nerds and seen as 'fool fool' and the rude boys who never paid attention got the girls, but when they became successful with the money, them start get some."

Why relinquish all that control to the wider society and allow them to dictate who an artiste is or what a 'real' artiste looks like? And shouldn't artistes fight harder to advocate education?

Gaynor says, "Some of us do and we should be doing more in that regard, but it's bigger than the artistes; the artistes are selling a product. Music is a business and it deals with supply and demand and the people demand it and the artistes supply what they ask for. So the people need to change the way they think first ... We are brought up on silly notions that when you are silly, it is gangster and cool, so until people emancipate themselves from that notion, things will never change."

"I would never like to be classified as a cool and dunce ... I have learnt that education is the key and the more you learn, the further you go. Whether or not you go to college, you just have to seek the knowledge ..." Gaynor said.

Widely respected

However, artiste Chino says education is, in fact, widely respected in dancehall circles and used fellow artiste Assassin as an example. "In terms of the dancehall feel, it's the more lyrical acts that you find had good schooling and they are intelligent. It's mainly the lyrics that ah do it now, not no simple rat or cat thing ... Probably back in the day or in the future people won't be accepting of intelligent artistes but not now. Look at Assassin: he attends college and his credibility didn't drop. As for me, people definitely tek me seriously cause it boil down to a lyrical thing."

Be that as it may, Joy fiercely puts forward a notion many may be forced to agree with. "While I do not think it's fair to stereotype people and label all artistes as dunces they need to be able to do good music, interviews and speak on issues. Some of them really are dunces, and really need to work on that. Even with their success, they have not tried to improve their education. Why not prove that they are more than this uneducated person trying to sing about issues? I think you can do both. Being educated is not necessarily only going to school, but it is reading, making choices for yourself and being knowledgeable. The majority of the artistes focus on projecting a certain image instead of trying to revolutionise the music. The state of the music has to begin with the artistes," she said.