Starting A Reggae Re-Issue Label - Thoughts and Ideas Please!!!

[Funky Punk]

How about more Keith Hudson?

'From One Extreme To Another' (or 'Black Morphologist Of Reggae' to use its alternative title) has never been released on CD, as far as I'm aware.

[Funky Punk]

Another suggestion for a future reissue - Papa Levi's 'Trouble In Africa'. I don't think that this has ever been on CD.

Actually, having now heard the album all the way through as mp3, I can understand why this has never been reissued.

I don't know if he still stands by the lyrics of that one song now (I'd hope not), but he didn't like gay or transsexual people back then, did he?

Any label that released that album in its entirety nowadays would probably be in for some very negative publicity and/or legal troubles.

I didn't know about this when I mentioned the album a few months ago.

He's not saying 'kill them' or anything, like Buju Banton did, and I'm aware that societal attitudes were different in the 80s - but it's still pretty bad.

[flashman]

You're talking about a deep seated and widespread cultural attitude. It's not about Levi, it's about pretty much the whole culture. You can find anti-gay sentiment in reggae in the 70's as well as the 2010's and 80's, 90's. Etc. Buju and virtually every DJ in the 90's had violent anti gay lyrics.
I don't imagine many Jamaicans disagreed with them in principle.

It's something we all have to deal with as reggae fans. I think it's wrong to single anyone out as anti gay, as if that is their unique position on the issue; the majority of the culture is that way. I've heard Mikey Dread, Tappa Zukie, Josey Wales in 1986, all with anti gay lyrics. It certainly didn't start with Buju. Buju was reflecting his culture, not creating it.

If you listen to Jamaican music of any era you are for the most part listening to music made by people who consider homosexuality an abomination, whether they are explicitly singing about it or not.

[Funky Punk]

To be honest, I've never noticed any anti-gay stuff in the reggae I listen to, or if it was there, I didn't understand the patois enough to pick up on it. But I'm very aware that there is a lot of 'gay bashing' stuff out there and some very deep-seated cultural/religious attitudes behind it. Just always struck me as odd, considering the genre's well-known outspoken opposition to established bigotry in other areas.

Yes, it is a fair point as to whether the music creates the culture, or simply expresses what's already there - the whole 'do people listen to it and then go out and do , or do people who tend to do listen to it because they agree with its message?' argument.


If I'm singling out Levi here, it's only because I'm discussing his album at the current time. I honestly don't know if the man is anti-gay now, or even much about him at all, really - I mean, a lot of musicians (and people in general) say and do things when they're younger that they later look back upon with regret.

Anyway, the point I was really making was that I can't see that particular album being reissued in its entirety, at least by a label in my own country (which Hot Milk is) due to the lyrical content. Sociopolitical views and the rights and wrongs of it aside - it's never really a good business decision to release something that's just going to piss off a large number of the potential customers (and not in the good 'it's so controversial that people will check it out' way) in your home market, considering that cultural attitudes here are (now) somewhat different, I think.

[Return of Jesco]

Good thoughtful posts Flashman and Funky Punk!

Seems to me as an old guy that people's attitudes to what they hear and see these days have changed so much, people take everything literally whereas when I was a kid what you saw on TV or heard on the radio wasn't real life, it was art of a sort and you read what you wanted into it. You could watch something pretty violent and say, well that teaches me not to be that way.

But I liked the "for the avoidance of doubt" sleeve notes to the King Tubby's Soundclash album - chop him and kill him with a piece of old iron doesn't mean a literal chop...

[Congo Bunny]

Good thoughtful posts Flashman and Funky Punk!

second that two very thoughtful posts about one of the uglier side of reggae/Jamaica

Also second Jesco's comments about not taking it literally. surely if all Reggae artists were literal then they would all live in Ethiopia and eat Ital Veggies, they are just songs afterall

[costarica]

Congrats Mellowman on three tremendous releases - solid distribution too via Cherry Red > Essential > PMD. Enjoying the Mighty Diamonds twofer very much in Showcase format. Rich pickings indeed in Trojan's catalogue - would be great to see Many Moods of I-Roy or first two Gregory Isaacs albums back in print. The evolution of dub series on Greensleeves is the way to go for me: Replica sleeves - three or four original albums bundled together. That's the way the Majors are going with Rock releases. Deluxe two disc editions have a very limited niche audience. The very best of luck to you and great work so far. Eek A Mouse probably not for me though