Drug use among performers surfaces in lyrics

NO MATTER the official classifications, in reggae and dancehall music marijuana is not a drug, and there are oodles of songs about the joys of using and supposed benefits derived from the plant. There is even an 18-track album from Greensleeves Records entitled Hi-Grade Ganja Anthems, which includes Wayne Smith's Under Me Sleng Teng, It Haffi Bun by Josey Wales, and 100 Dollar Bag by Beenie Man.

And the CD does not include immortal marijuana songs, such as Bob Marley's Kaya and Peter Tosh's Legalise It and Bush Doctor.

The marijuana benefits that are sung and deejayed about are financial as well, as Barrington Levy sings in Under Mi Sensie: "Hey Babylon you no like ganja man/But a we bring the foreign country pon de island."

On the other hand, cocaine and its users are vilified in no uncertain terms. Ironically, large cocaine dealers do not receive anywhere near the scorn which addicts do.

There are the warnings, Clement Irie imploring in the late 1980s: "Ah waan yu leave out the drugs alone/No touch de ting call de crack/No touch de ting call de coke". He goes on to detail the effects of the drug: "(It will) suck down yu body make yu look like a pin/Cause you taking the drugs and you not eating you see the drugs a dangerous sinting."

Shinehead, the ultimate Jamai-can in New York, put his rejection of crack in Gimme No Crack with: "I'm real cool, I chill to the max/I might act crazy but I don't smoke crack."

simple observation

Then there is the simple observation about cocaine use in Cottage In Negril, the Tyrone Taylor lover's rock classic which was recently covered by Duane Stephenson on his From August Town CD. The song associates cocaine with the intention to simply get a buzz and enjoy the laid-back lifestyle of Negril: "Some sniffing cocaine/Some getting high, licking sensimilla pipe/Then go west, to watch sunset at the Rick's Café."

Still, cocaine has made its way into the ranks of the the reggae and dancehall performers, as the always humorous Professor Nuts posits in one lyric. He adapts the persona of interviewer and interviewee in a question and answer session about the source of a particular problem. When the interviewer asks if it is coke, the reply is, "Whey yu tek me fa? King Everald an' Tiger dem?"

Gregory Isaacs' cocaine troubles were once prominent in the press, but in true troubadour fashion, he turned it all into song with hard drugs, intoning in his nasal voice: "Talking about hard drugs/The more them get it them still want more/Now the pusher was away upon his ups and downs/And man are like junkies all over town."

There is one case in which a dancehall performer points to the source of his rumoured cocaine troubles in another entertainer. In their 1991 Sting clash at the National Stadium, Ninja pointed to Supercat and said: "Dis bway a walk a tell people bout Ninja Man a tek coke. De fus time me get coke a Supercat me get e from." Supercat replied: "Glad yu know dat. Walk like me an waan talk like me."

Still, Ninja Man went on to deejay: "I'm not addicted to no hard drugs. Tell Supercat we a go legalise the herb an' we will get rid a de coke man dem."