'Forward With Crawford' mixes politics and music

Krista Henry, Staff Reporter

Damion Crawford, MP hopeful for the People's National Party, has added music to the hear of his campaign strategy after releasing his Forward With Crawford mixtape on Thursday.

The 50-minute mixtape features popular, new dancehall tracks, each of which carefully blends the 'Forward With Crawford' slogan. Incorporating his political message into his music, Crawford has turned snippets from one of his speeches into songs, which are called Worse Than A Go-Go and Youth vs Good Yute.

Worse Than A Go-Go, he told The Sunday Gleaner recently, "Comes off in a humorous manner but it deals with a very important topic - that of vote-buying and selling which I am totally against. In a part of a recent speech I made, I stated that persons who sell their votes, not only sell their rights, but when some of these people sell themselves for $5,000 for five years that works out to $1,000 a year and that is worse than being a go-go. That part of the speech really caught on in the public domain and some music was laid over it and it was mixed into a song. So, too, was another part of the speech where I made reference to another person and that was turned into Youth vs. Good Yute."

powerful tool

The mixtape, Crawford said, was done, "In an effort to effectively reach persons across St Andrew. Music is undeniably a powerful tool and not everyone will be willing to listen to a 30-minute speech, but it's easier to get your point across if persons enjoy every moment of it."

Music also plays an important role in Crawford's Young, Black and Powerful which aptly shares the name of dancehall star Konshens' single. Young, Black and Powerful, is a 30-minute biography of his life with inserts from his family members and close friends. "I don't know him personally, but the song is a great one and encapsulates everything I wanted to bring across about my life and journey," Crawford said of Konshens.

Crawford will also stage his 'Straight Forward' campaign party at Kool 97, 28 Derrymore Road, St Andrew on Saturday night.

Music and politics is a two way street, both of which have its benefits. While politicians use music in their campaigns, the musicians themselves have not shied from levying criticism against the 'powers that be' via their music. Examples of these throughout the years have included Bob Marley's Revolution, Ninja Man's Nah Go Love It, Buju Banton's Politics Time Again and even Vybz Kartel's Emergency in which he laments: 'Mi love Portia Simpson, mi love Babsy Grange/But if dem nuh tun a new page/We nah wear no red or no green again/We ah wear beige'.

While the opposite is evinced with overseas recording artistes, who readily threw their support behind (then) 2008 presidential hopeful, Barack Obama. The almost 40 musicians, actors, athletes and celebrities including, John Legend, rapper Common and Sheryl Crow, who appeared in the Yes We Can video based on Obama's speech, and was spearheaded by Black Eyed Peas member and producer, Will.I.Am, took mainstream media by storm.

Another open advocate of young persons exercising their voting rights, was music mogul, P Diddy who founded Citizen Change, a political service group with the campaign slogan: 'Vote or Die!' The 'Vote or Die' campaign was backed by notable entertainers including, Mary J Blige, 50 Cent, Mariah Carey and others.

political history

Crawford had much to say about the link between music and politics. "I think it is understandable why most entertainers would be unwilling to openly support local politicians - not only because the country's political history is known to have attracted violence, so some stay away out of fear, but now that we have stepped away from that, their reasons are different, but just as important. Though music is one of our chief exports, over the years, very limited attention has been paid to properly developing and formalising the music and creative-arts industry. Therefore, entertainers and those within the fraternity will be unwilling to lend support to those who have the ability to spearhead innovative ideas which will lead to additional income, but have not done so."

Crawford continued, "It would, therefore, be naïve of us to ignore those as some of the chief reasons why entertainers would choose not to participate in or endorse local politics. The fact is that they have not seen where such an endorsement would be profitable for the industry. Unlike most overseas artistes who have access to bigger recording contracts and show opportunities, our local artistes do not make as much, and it doesn't only have to do with the kind of music being produced - that is only one aspect. The rest has to do with training, marketing, innovative ideas and investment."

He posited that among the possible initiatives that could be undertaken to improve the economic viability of the music industry are: proper training for persons hoping to enter the field; eradicating the taxation imposed on entertainers and musicians should they commit to two free shows for the year - one such event would be a 'Reggae Woodstock', a seven-day show which is promoted as a tourism attraction and persons from across the world can visit the island and camp on the grounds, similar to the overseas Woodstock concert held in New York in 1969, while the other event would be a 'Back To School' event/treat.

"The money they didn't get paid by performing for free at these two events would go toward the government and replace their tax," said Crawford. "Also as far as training goes, take for example, those in Gordon Town and other rural areas need a centralised arts-training centre in order to properly develop their skills, breathing techniques, etc. Therefore, should the opportunity arise, they are able to tour with persons as engineers and musicians - they too can become the next Stevie and Clevie or Sly and Robbie. Also it's very difficult for the 'next' Marcia Griffiths, Tanya Stephens, Beres Hammond, Freddie McGregor, Beenie Man, Bounty Killer, Lady Saw, Spice, Konshens, and others to emerge with limited access to proper recording studios. And the fact is that persons will not be as willing to invest in an entertainer if they are not sufficiently trained in music, deejaying and singing. Sometimes average output comes from above-average talent because they lack exposure to information and training.

"The point is that people will not support that which doesn't empower, educate or lead to lucrative job opportunities by using the resources available to them."