Dear Editor,
There is a lot of public promotion of the Ignition concert slated for April 19, 2008 in Guyana. This open letter is addressed to Mr Jonathan Beepat and colleagues of Wildfire Promotions, Ansa McAl (Guyana) Limited, Digicel Guyana , Caribbean Airlines and other sponsors of the ‘Ignition’ concert.
There is much public attention generated by your promotion and sponsorship of Bounty Killer to perform in Guyana on April 19, with other artistes. There is no doubt that there is a need to have good entertainment in Guyana.
Bounty Killer, however, has a history of glorifying violence in his music, specifically calling for the killing of homosexuals. Unlike other artistes who have signed the Reggae Compassionate Act and have desisted from performing these songs, Bounty Killer remains adamant and proud of his calls to violence.
Within the last month, Bounty Killer’s concerts have been cancelled in Birmingham and Bradford in the United Kingdom, and in Essen in Germany due to recognition that Bounty Killer is not the kind of performer to be promoted in any society which is concerned about violence.
Last September, the management of the University of the West Indies St. Augustine campus in Trinidad cancelled a concert by “Dr. Evil” when notified that the performer was infamous for a repertoire of violent, anti-gay lyrics.
Earlier this year in St. Vincent, the Police Commissioner there denied a permit for “gansta fah life” singer Movado to perform after public appeals for a change in the culture which promotes violence.
In February, Trinidad’s DJ “Hyper Hoppa” identified violent lyrics in music as a negative influence and called on fellow DJs to take a stand and change the kinds of music they play, after a secondary student was stabbed to death by a fellow student in school.
Recently, Apple’s iTunes online music store started removing violently-homophobic songs and entire albums containing the offending lyrics from its North American markets in response to a campaign by Egale and Stop Murder Music (Canada).
Last week, in an unprecedented move Red Stripe issued a statement announcing its decision to withdraw all sponsorship for live music events in Jamaica because “some performers continue to propagate, through their live performances, violent and anti-social lyrics.”
The world and the region are waking up to the deleterious effects of lyrical violence in popular music especially among young men, who are its primary consumers. Guyana is already experiencing problems of social violence, which is largely male-perpetrated.
You, as promoters and private sector sponsors, have choices to make in terms of who you sell to the Guyanese public. We therefore encourage you to assure the public that the Ignition concert on April 19 will not endorse violence and that your companies are committed to working to reverse the tide of violence in Guyana.
Yours faithfully,
Joel Simpson,
Namela Henry,
Colleen McEwan,
Roxanne Myers,
Vidyaratha Kissoon
