Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Busy Signal recovers with "Too Many Men" in subtle messaged song


Lyrics as follows
Intro
Hold on deh,
Top gyallis, man a top gyallis, (fi real)
Top gyallis, man a top gyallis, (fi real)
Top gyallis, man a top gyallis, (fi real)
Mi nuh follow back a bwoy.
Hot head, yo Chi Ching
Beer gyal to me ting,
cause a so mi ting set
Mi nuh follow back a man, mi nuh trail inna step,
mi nuh accept number, beer gyal pin mi accept.
Some boy get di ting incorrect,
Dem a par wid ...

Chorus:

Too many many many many many men, men, man

Too many many many many many men, men, man

Too much man, too much man.

Nuff boy a road dem a get di ting wrong, dem a par wid.

Too many many many many many men, men, men

Too many many many many many men, men, men

Too much man, too much man

Nuff boy a road dem cyaan understand sey.


Verse one
Me look and see one gal and 20 man.
to me, that's more than plenty man,
whole of dem couldn't mek up and find 20 gran.
Dem fi look a farm work on an empty land.
Nine man squeeze up inna one Corolla,
Kingfish yuh nuh waan smell di aroma.
Some of dem so musty and have bad odour.
Man a gyallis, as gyal see me dem hang ova.

Rept Chorus

Verse two
It nuh look good fi have a bagga man a trail yuh
some of dem nuh real, dem quick fi fail yuh.
Waan yuh pop down, fi pass yuh and nuh hail yuh.
Go a jail get lock up, dem nah go bail yuh.
No man nuh follow mi, nuh follow back a dem
Gyal to me ting, so mi neva lack a dem.
Have a whole bunch, whole pack of dem
gyallis from mi born, from mi root to me stem.
Di gyal dem sey dem love how me flex,
from di way how mi gwaan, to di way how me...
Sey dem love off di way how mi dress, hot head
mi braids dem a di hottest.
Nuh man nuh have fi tell sey no new fren mi sey
nuh bagga circle wid mi, mi like no pig pen mi sey
Because a nuff man a pose as artiste defender,
but mi know dem a pretender.

Rept Chorus
Rept Intro
Rept Chorus

ENDS

In a move on the face of it to recover from a stinging set of criticisms from fans, bloggers, dancehall forums online and entertainment insiders The Busy Signal has released "Too Many Men" in December 2010 in counteraction to a song he voiced and released earlier entitled "I Love Girls Who Love Girls" that caused him some problems, many suggested at the time he was sneaking in homosexuality through the back door with particular emphasis on lesbian group sex which in real terms is happening out there through bisexual contacts in the public domain. Stories of orgies and group sex parties are not uncommon and many exotic night clubs do offer or tacitly allow lesbian entertainment as many males find it intriguing.


In case you missed that previous "Love Girls" song here is a snippet of it:
Busy Signal - I Love Girls Who love Girls by Urban Islandz

Mr Busy Signal by the way is not new to Gay typed controversy as many may recall he had recovered from the whole mix up with the line in a song he recorded called "One More Night" it was a spin off from Phil Collins' eighties hit of the same name. The line that caused the brouhaha then was 'BABY GIRL GIVE ME ONE MORE NIGHT” while some persons said they heard "“GARY GIVE ME ONE MORE NIGHT” in the recording some questioned if it was a gliche during the post production and mixing process while others have suggested it was deliberate to create controversy and attention to the song which incidentaly went to the number one spot here in Jamaica and reggae charts overseas and is a staple now on some radio formats. The song has sinced been remixed and re-released.

This new track though as in "Too Many Men" I feel is designed to reposition him and silence his critics on the gay issue and his supposed turn in the previous release, as noted in other posts dancehall acts usually rely on songs of this nature to appeal to the charged feelings the public has on male homosexuality although those feelings seem to be changing painstakingly slow to more of a leave them alone or gays are here mentality. "Men" used in the Jamaican colloquial parlance usually refers to gays so the very title or hook is telling where he expects the listener to go in interpretation. The "top gyalis" sections in the song refers to the hegemonic masculine ideals in the local context of being a man is having more than one female sexual partners at once with gives him prowess and vindicates his heterosexuality as if bisexuality does not exist.

Lest we forget we have a homophobic yet homosocial set of standards of socialization and songs like this serve to separate the apparent closeness of males in that setting avoiding any sexual inclination or moves. In a quote from one of the more sensible articles published in the Jamaica Star on the 26.11.08 entitled Jamaica Homophobic Yet Homosocial the writer hit the nail on the head,

"Now, compare that with your quality engagement and time spent with the opposite sex. I'll bet all the money I lost in Cash Plus that when the situations are objectively compared, many men will find that they spend more time and energy dedicated to activities with other men than with women. Isn't that funny? But, as I'm never tired of saying, we are a case study in contradiction. Is true, man! Many Jamaican men seem to be violently homophobic, yet passionately 'homosocial' at the same time. Check it, dem burn fire on men who sleep with men but di only company dat dem keep is men.

Some roughneck, macho men seem totally happy to spend 20 hours of one day socialising with a bag a man and then share the remaining four hours with a woman. And, those four hours are likely to involve maybe 15 minutes of talk, 45 minutes of sex and three hours of sleep. In fact, one man made it clear to me that, as far as he's concerned, the main thing to do with the opposite sex was sex."

So see if it all makes sense to you now as we begin to understand how dancehall works with anti gay lyrics even in their subtle forms and bearing in mind even Busy Signal has a right to object but in a respectable form as in this song which does not seem to incite violence directly.

Peace and tolerance

H

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