Dancehall Rhythm

Look around and tell me wat goin on in dis society?

The Caribbean is not what we once knew it to be

Corruption, poverty and vulgarity is what we see

Echoes of HIV and teenage pregnancy

Messages of violence , drugs and sexuality

My eyes burning , meh belly groaning, meh heart aching

What happened to our Caribbean?

 Years ago we embraced a culture of diversity yuh know!

But a woman like me so old in she sixties got to wonder what we gon to?

Eh Caribbean man, West Indian woman?

Arise and see how morality tun so?

It riles me when I see how society do we

The woman them jus exposing they body

And the chil’ren jus exhibiting pure vanity

I’m telling yuh is de dancehall rhythm got dem so

Seems like only yesterday when I sing meh calypso, dance to de tassa drum straight into disco, then I sip meh mauby and do some limbo

Mr. Watson passed and ask, “ Shirley, how do you know to limbo like that?”

I replied, “Well Mr. Watson, a West Indian could never forget that.”

You see these little things I recall

These precious memories will live on.

How we West Indians moved our bodies smoothly, appreciating the culture we held dearly

Now it’s a mere reflection

To relive that, is still an ambition

Jus because of the Gully and Gaza domination

Yuh see this Gully and Gaza thing, it really affecting the way we think

From back biting to bleaching we skin

It’s all for the wealth and fame, when the pickney dem struggling to get something in they brain

But yet I don’t know

Is why they acting so?

The vulgarity and promiscuity is all a cycle of shame

Sexual objects they say, de man dem spoiling they name but Lady Saw say one man can’t satisfy she but two or three gon light the flame

I jus don’t understand dis, how we Caribbean people can’t pick sense outa nonsense

The Caribbean we once knew is no more

Frustration and agony

I jus can’t bear it no more

It’s not just profanity and sexuality, but it’s corroding us psychologically

Like when the clarks song released

It had everybody rushing, the price dropping and the sales booming

It’s a pity to see this dancehall frenzy

That the youth being bombarded with

Literacy they can’t proclaim

But to pull a trigger is they aim

Like I’ve had enough

I can’t sit down and let this dancehall fraternity continue to erode we morality