Written By: Ras Vuyo – Producer/Sound Engineer at Ghetto Vibrations, Cape Town
Our economic situation as a Native African people can no longer be blamed on white people, it seems as if we are our worst enemy at the moment. There is some truth in the article, if the people of African descent do not support our own, we cannot blame or criticize others when they support their own.
Reggae music would be worse off if it was not the white world that supports it. Most of the big Reggae festivals in the US are largely supported by white people, very few Africans attend these festivals. The European and the US live Reggae scene is now moving towards empowering more white Reggae musicians, they fly in one or two man and use a local all white band. It make sense for the European to create employment for their own first because charity begins at home.
It is now very necessary for us the Africans to learn to establish businesses and support one another if we are to continue to survive as a people, we need to change our mind set as a people. In the context of music, the media including print, radio, TV and digital platform, almost all this media is in the hands of the Europeans, even the government owned Radio and TV station will promote the white business interest (this includes the Major record companies like Sony/BMG, Universal, etc) this is because of the revenue it generates for the state, as far as Reggae music is concerned it seems as if they have declared war on local Reggae music.
The Billboard Magazine’s Reggae Artist of the year is based on the number of albums sold for that year, it has nothing to do with the quality of the production. Knowing that the media does affect sales by letting the fans know of the album and in turn the fans will buy the album and increase album sales. Most for the white Reggae bands and artists will be a bit soft in terms of lyrical content while the African Reggae artist or band will address the real issues affecting the black community. Besides the lyrical content that might upset the politicians and threaten white business interest, the African musicians will also have more hard core Reggae elements while the white artist will have a more pop-ish element.
In terms of Bob Marley’s album, the fact is that, it’s the sales that counts, Bob came second after Joss Stone then Bob was followed by a white Reggae band Rebelution after them was the VP’s Reggae Gold 2015 which was followed by two white Reggae bands, Iration and Soja respectively and only then Jah Cure followed with his album the Cure.
To conclude I will say, let us work hard towards establishing, running and supporting our own institutions that will promote our own interest as a people. The white community or the Asian community will use their institutions and resources to advance the interest of their own people first and most important they support their own first. If they support anyone from outside of their community, they will make sure that they benefit economically from it. We the Africans are the only people who supports everyone else except our own, please let us support our artists by buying their music so that Jah Cure, Colbert Mukwevho can be the artist of the year as far as Billboard Magazine is concerned.