Search - Beenie Man :: Blessed

Much To Consider About Dancehall Lyrics

BW | 02/12/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Beenie Man's lyrics express a growing sentiment of how many impoverished Jamaicans feel. The island is swarmed with tourists and tourist dollars daily and yet these dollars rarely trickle down into the pockets of the majority. Yes, there is a minority power elite in Jamaica as in many places. One can generally view Jamaica as some kind of paradise to escape cold weather but the majority of native islanders cant escape the poverty they were born into. This sentiment is magnified when the island is bombarded with foreigners who even buy property there and live better than the born Jamaicans. This has created an anti-western sentiment in the slums of Jamaica and other impoverished islands.



I dont condone the violent homophobic lyrics that Beenie blasts but poverty leads people hate things they dont understand. It's the cycle of violence that proverty manifests and it's a shame that certain people (like homosexuals) become scape goats for peoples misery. This can also be said of rap music in American hip hop culture. But in the islands this poverty in the slums that the dancehall artists are trying to escape is way more intense than that of America so these sentiments are more intense as well. This hatred must be dealt with as again I'm not condoning these things but I'm giving a different insight to the rhetoric."