AIDS concert to feature singers who call for murder of gays

[Calvin]

Posted: 7/12/06 at 2:10pm

This is a truly curious story. LIFEBeat is hosting an AIDS awareness concert featuring Jamaican reggae singers Beenie Man and TOK, both of whom have songs with lyrics encouraging the murder of gays. The event organizers are well aware of this and seem to think there's some sort of greater good accomplished by hiring these repulsive scumbags for their event. What's more -- they're trying to tell us to put these lyrics into some kind of spritual context.

Horsefeathers. Let's be clear. I was always an Eminem apologist. I got the joke. I know some understandly didn't find it funny, but I got the joke. With these guys, there's no joke. It's probably safer to be gay in the poorest trailer park in Alabama than it is in Jamaica, and to allow two people who are active in cultivating that climate to perform at an AIDS awareness function is idiotic. And self-defeating.

Here's the AP's version Updated On: 7/12/06 at 02:10 PM

[Calvin]

Posted: 7/12/06 at 2:11pm

and one of my daily-read blogs that is covering it

[DayDreamer]

Posted: 7/12/06 at 2:13pm

As a person living with AIDS, I find this extremely repulsive and offensive.

The same way that as a gay man I found emimem offensive... because even though it was a joke, plenty of kids out there didn't take it as so.

edited to add "living"

Updated On: 7/12/06 at 02:13 PM

[ljay889]

Posted: 7/12/06 at 2:16pm

Wtf? That's all I can say.

[RobbO]

Posted: 7/12/06 at 2:17pm

oh, a good time will be had for all. are tickets for sale now through telecharge?

[Calvin]

Posted: 7/12/06 at 2:18pm

Does Beenie Man sign at the stage door?

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 7/12/06 at 2:19pm

I'll ask him to sign my rainbow flag. :)

[ljay889]

Posted: 7/12/06 at 2:20pm

He'll probally shoot us at the stage door.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 7/12/06 at 2:23pm

i saw this the other day. curious.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 7/12/06 at 2:24pm

Ugh! I dont understand what they think this could accomplish.

Did anyone see the coming out story of the young man from Jamaica on Logo? It was amazing as he went back to Jamaica, where he had witnessed a lynching of a gay man as a little boy before his family moved to the states.

He needed to come out to his homophobic uncle.

[blueroses]

Posted: 7/12/06 at 2:37pm

What's with the organizers? It's insensitive and insane. Do they think they're doing the we're-too-cool-for-school thing by looking the other way or just trying to drum up some press? I'm not getting what this would accomplish besides hurting and alienating a large group of people.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 7/12/06 at 2:48pm

Go to Calvin's second link, a great liberal gay-lesbian blog called "Pam's House Blend," and you'll find the "defenses" of the organizers and emails and phone numbers of the board of directors of LifeBeat, which is stubbornly refusing to cancel these performances, as their British counterparts have done.

[amasis]

Posted: 7/12/06 at 7:08pm

They've now canceled the show. They didn't really acknowledge their insensitivity about the line-up, though.

http://www.lifebeat.org/news.cfm/article/46


LIFEBEAT STATEMENT:

LIFEbeat – The Music Industry Fights AIDS, has collectively decided to cancel its Reggae Gold Live concert, scheduled for Tuesday, July 18 at New York’s Webster Hall. While the organization’s staff and board believe very strongly in the positive purpose and intention of this event, the possibility of violence at the concert from the firestorm incited by a select group of activists makes canceling the event the only responsible action. Dialogue is important and LIFEbeat’s staff and board respect the opinions of those who came forward to make their feelings known. We have always and will continue to support the GLBT community.

It is very unfortunate, however, that the intended good that could result from bringing this community together around this potentially ground breaking event will not be realized. The Caribbean American community needs our help in bringing attention to this unspoken and often stigmatized illness. We hope in the wake of this decision that those who came forward and spoke out will now come forward again to do something positive for the Caribbean American community and help bring attention to the devastation this disease has wreaked in that community so awareness, prevention and healing can follow.

Updated On: 7/12/06 at 07:08 PM

[mominator]

Posted: 7/12/06 at 7:25pm

This is one for the WTF files!

[Calvin]

Posted: 7/12/06 at 10:16pm

So they're throwing the baby out with the bathwater. How classy of them. And:

the possibility of violence at the concert from the firestorm incited by a select group of activists

EXCUSE me? The most violent gay activists ever get is tossing a pie at Anita Bryant. So singing songs about killing and burning gays and lesbians is A-OK for the greater good, but complaining about it causes a firestorm that could incite violence?

Can the LIFEBeat people not comprehend that the violent homophobia propogated by these sings might be one of the very roots of the AIDS problem in the Caribbean?

For their next event, might I suggest former Houston mayoral candidate Louis Welch. Welch, whom my grandmother used to call "that cockeyed bastard," once remarked in a front of a microphone that he didn't know was on: "Do you know how to cure AIDS? Shoot all the queers." (To the credit of Houston, he lost, BTW) But it sounds like old Louis' prevention method would fit in well with their lineup ideas.

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 7/12/06 at 10:52pm

Goodness. What insanity.

I'm seeing Pink at Webster Hall the next night, so I'm glad there won't be any blood on the dance floor.

[iflitifloat]

Posted: 7/13/06 at 8:13am

This is one of those things that makes my belief in the right of free speech waiver, almost uncontrollably.

Much like the murders of James Byrd or Matthew Shepard made me a little less committed to my anti-Death Penalty stance for the moment.

Updated On: 7/13/06 at 08:13 AM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 7/13/06 at 8:22am

Odd to think of an AIDS charity devolving into a homophobic institution. There will be massive shake-ups at LIFEBeat, once the board starts addressing this.

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 7/13/06 at 8:27am

i can't quite picture what a homophobic reggae song sounds like...

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 7/13/06 at 8:30am

Boom bye bye
Inna batty bwoy head
Rude bwoy no promote no nasty man
Dem haffi dead
Boom bye bye
Inna batty bwoy head
Rude bwoy no promote no nasty man
Dem haffi dead

(Two man) Hitch up on an rub up on
An lay down inna bed
Hug up on another
Anna feel up leg
Send fi di matic an
Di Uzi instead
Shoot dem no come if we shot dem--

[PalJoey]

Posted: 7/13/06 at 8:38am

Violently homophobic reggae lyrics - with translations

Under each line of Jamaican patois is the English translation. In brackets are relevant explanations.

The song, Nuh Fi Wi Fault, by Elephant Man boasts:

Battyman fi dead!
Queers are to be killed

Please mark we word
Please mark my words

Gimme tha tech-nine
Give me the Tech-9 (machine gun)

Shoot dem like bird
Shoot them (queers) like birds

Another Elephant Man track, We Nuh Like Gay, goes:

Battyman fi dead! Tek dem by surprise
Queers are to be killed, take them by surprise

Ghetta in shot head, cau me big gun collide.
Get them shot in the head because we have the big guns (to shoot them)

Gimme me Tech-9, General B wid de chrome an waa shine/
Give me the Tech-9 (type of gun) with the chrome and the shine

Harry Toddler shot out ah bugger-man
Shoot all queer men

Elephant Man's song, Log On, celebrates setting fire to a gay person and
stamping on their body:

Log on and step pon chi chi man
Log on and step on a queer man
(Log on is a type of dance using the right foot in a stepping motion as if
to squash a****roach or insect - the dance lyric boasts about stepping on
queers).

Dance wi a dance and a bun out a freaky man.
Join our dance to burn out the queer man

Step pon him like a old cloth
Step on him like an old cloth

A dance wi a dance and a crush out dem.
Join our dance and crush them (queers)
(further emphasis to invite participants to do the dance)

Do di walk, mek mi see the light and di torch dem fass
Do the walk, make us see the light and torch the queers fast

Another Level, featuring Bounty Killer with Babycham, says:

Bun a fire pon a kuh pon mister fagoty (Uh huh)
Burn a fire and kill Mr queer

Cocky deh yah suh fi wheel unda Dorothy (Uh huh)
The****is to be used under Dorothy (a girl)

Ears ah ben up and a wince under agony
Ears are bending and the girl is wincing with agony

Poop man fi drown a dat a yawd man philosophy (Uh huh)
Queer men who have anal sex should be drowned and that's a yardy man
philosophy

Beenie Man's hit tune, Bad Man Chi Chi Man (Bad Man, Queer Man), instructs
listeners to kill gay DJs (bad man chi chi man means bad queers):

If yuh nuh chi chi (queer) man wave yuh right hand and (NO!!!)
If you are not gay wave your right hand and

If yuh nuh lesbian wave yuh right hand and (NO!!!)
If you are not a lesbian wave your right hand and

Some bwoy will go a jail fi kill man tun bad man chi chi man!!!
Some boys will go to jail for killing a man and then turn into a queer

Tell mi, sumfest it should a be a showdown
Tell me if Sumfest (summerfest reggae festival) should close down

Yuh seem to run off a stage like a clown (Kill Dem DJ!!!)
You see him run off the stage like a clown (Kill that DJ!!!)

Bounty Killer's Mr. Wanna Be includes the lyrics:
(This song refers to the rivalry between Beenie Man and Bounty Killer)

Hear this likkle punk guh sing a battyman concert
Hear this little boy going to sing at queer concert

Seh him hood Beenie, a deh suh mi object
Say he's done Beenie damage and he (Bounty Killer) does not object

And him guh pon Mirage, and guh dis-respect.
And he went to Mirage (a former night club) and showed disrespect (toward
Bounty Killer)

War mi start dat by reservation and request
War is going to start by reservation and request

To kill dis yah fool, to me dat is no stress
To kill this fool, to me that is no stress

Murder dem fast just like a Federal Express
Murder them fast just like Federal Express

And mi run wild west
And I run the wild west (cowboy reference)
PeterTatchell.net

[iflitifloat]

Posted: 7/13/06 at 8:39am

Sometimes your ability to spin a lyric scares the bejeezus out of me, Namo.

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 7/13/06 at 8:48am

Whatever happened to the good ol' days of getting together, mon, and feelin' alright?

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 7/13/06 at 8:52am

yeah, i mean those pass the dutchie kids were cute and i'm sure they represented the real reggae movement unlike these current interlopers.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 7/13/06 at 9:50am

Cruel, it's clear your knowledge of reggae and Jamaican culture extends as far as pop-reggae tunes used on TV commercials.

PalJoey, may I be the first to quote "Hair" to you in this thread?

"Thank you Margaret Mead."

Iflit, me no MC toaster man no dancin on de beach.

ETA This might just be my favorite couplet in the helpful translations:

"Step pon him like a old cloth
Step on him like an old cloth"

I mean, why not go the whole nine and translate it as:

"Step upon him in a manner befitting an old cloth strewn upon the floor"?

Updated On: 7/13/06 at 09:50 AM