Clashing within the code

Poking my nose (literally) into a crowd for the first time since the entertainment sector reopened was a blast. A peaceful one, too – it was a sound clash (the very short version) and there wasn’t a single curse word, crowd disturbance or gunshot. Strange, but true.

I had a wonderful time standing behind the thick of the crowd, with good space around me, at the recent Guinness Sounds of Greatness sound clash event. So did the many hundreds (or thousands) of other people who were at the Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre, St Andrew, especially during the clash between Panther and Ricky Trooper session. Ironically, however, it was the latter, with a well-established badman image from Kilamanjaro sound system, who reminded his opponent that it was a corporate event and they had agreed to a code of conduct. And Bass Odyssey sound system’s owner Keith Walford, who was one of the judges, reminded the crowd that they were seeing an edited version of the two selectors. The presence of a judging panel was evidence of an edited version of a sound system clash in the first place, as in the real deal it is the crowd alone that decides which sound wins and which sound dies.

These comments did not provoke protests or even murmurs from the crowd, as Sounds of Greatness was Guinness stamped from beginning to end. The structure and control were clear and there was no interference when there was some content that may have proved problematic. There was a double irony as it was also Ricky Trooper who reminded the audience of his bad man credentials, saying that it was he who had come on YouTube with a big fat Glock (remember ‘put did pon YouTube’?). There was a mild sexual jab, as Panther commented that Trooper was playing two (as he went second in a particular round). That did not bother Trooper, but he was very displeased about an Ensure dubplate (a customised recording, sometimes tailor-made to deride an opposing selector) and let Panther know in no uncertain terms. Then there was the moment when the disc jockey spinning the tunes for Panther waved a hand at Trooper, who barked that he should go fan something out of his girl’s mouth.

The crowd loved it all.

Having followed the often fractious interaction between corporate sponsors and dancehall performers in Jamaica since 2005, what passed as unremarkable at the Guinness Sounds of Greatness one-night event in 2022 is striking from a long-term perspective. The tussles have played out at live events and even more so in the press, with the public weighing in with opinions enthusiastically and happily taking sides (most times with the dancehall performers). To see a Code of Conduct, which controls performance, accepted (although the boundaries were tested slightly) without comment is a huge change from even 10 years ago. Still, in its 14th year Guinness Sounds of Greatness is well established. I went to Junction, May Pen and Portmore during its first season and followed many clashes in years afterwards – and there is a clear distinction between the ‘corporate clash’ and the ‘real clash’.

In that vein, at the 2022 Guinness Sounds of Greatness one-night event it was made clear that Panther and Trooper would meet again in early August in Portland and it would be a different sort of encounter. That leaves me to wonder if there will be a performance regulations in place at the Reggae Sumfest Global Sound Clash later this month. This is set to be a huge one, with Bass Odyssey, Silverhawk (the sound that most captured my imagination as a teenager and young adult), Exodus Nuclear (which is different from Exodus 4×4), Warrior Sound and Mystic Sound. Bass Odyssey and Silverhawk are hardcore in the business of clashing and it seems nigh impossible that there will be no content that would contravene a code of conduct.

Those of us who would go to Pier 1 each Easter Monday during the first decade of this century to see sound systems, including Bass Odyssey, tangle in the Irish and Chin promoted Death Before Dishonour clashes know the Pier 1 sound system battleground quite well. Sponsorship issues contributed significantly to the ending of that series, even though it attracted hordes of fans. Wouldn’t it be ironic if the type of content that caused one promoter sponsorship issues helped another, well-sponsored promoter pull off a successful clash in the same venue? Irish and Chin must be keeping a close eye here.

There is many a twist and turn in this matter of corporate involvement in dancehall. As much as I enjoyed my first big post-lockdown night out event, I know I was watching a performance in more ways than one.

Mel Cooke covered Jamaican entertainment as a print journalist for almost two decades, overlapping with his MPhil research on dancehall and experiential marketing with the Institute of Caribbean Studies, UWI, Mona, where he is now working on a PhD while lecturing in the Bachelor of Arts, Communication Arts and Technology (BACAT) programme at the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech, Ja.).