Text: Mel Cooke
This article was first published in December 2023 (RIDDIM 01/2024).
Trap dancehall performer Jahshii’s troubles in his home community of Grant’s Pan, rooted in speculation of his being connected to the death of a man who ”dissed” his mother and escalating with the killing of Jahshii’s brother and the shooting up of a set of vehicles he was travelling with, are deeper than they first appear. There is a complex web of loyalty, street ”creds”, misplaced machoness and the curious Jamaican concept of ”rich and switch”.
I doubt that persons who have not been to Jamaica and seen some Jamaican dancehall performers – deejays, really – on their home soil enter a venue with a crowd in tow can truly understand what an entourage truly means. It is not the same as a somewhat organized group of support personnel, where it can be discerned that the persons making up the gaggle behind the performer have some function. Instead, it is a large crowd of (almost invariably) all men, proud of their association with ”de artiste” and anxious to prove their loyalty. And the size of the ”mantourage” is often considered proportionate to the status of the deejay. In other words, the more men walking with a deejay, the more recognized and powerful he is.
Of course, these persons must have a lot of time on their hands (as in unemployed) and seeking validation (as in generally lacking in high levels of formal education) to add to an artiste’s pack of prove supporters. And, in the main, most times they will be connected to the lower socioeconomic community the deejay comes from.
This link is not only Jahshii and Grant’s Pen. It is Shabba Ranks and Bounty Killer with Seaview. It is Cham and Sherlock Crescent. It is Sizzla and Judgement Yard in August Town. Mavado and Cassava Piece. Kartel and the ”Gaza” area of Portmore. It is Josey Wales and Daddy U‑Roy and Olympic Gardens. It is Bob Marley and Trench Town. Heck, it is Bass Odyssey and Alexandria in St. Ann. Or Black Kat and Christiana, Manchester. Or King Jammy’s sound system and studio in Waterhouse. Look into the history of many Jamaican Popular Music performers from a poor background and a community that is fiercely proud of him or her, and expects that loyalty to be returned in cash or kind (or both) forms part of the success story.
But it is a double-edged sword. In Jamaica there is a term called ”rich and switch”, where someone who has newly acquired wealth – that is the rich – is perceived to have abandoned and been disloyal to the place they grew up in and those who are still in a state of poverty, finding new friends and hangouts – hence the switch. And woe be unto the artiste who has got rich and switched. And it does not take much for this to be murmured into reality – not turning up as regularly as before, driving in the area with car windows wound up and the air-conditioning on.
Which leaves Jahshii, and many other dancehall performers, in a quandary. They seem to have made enough money to live very comfortably ”uptown” (a rather vague term, space, but certainly not with zinc fences, corner shops and electricity being blatantly stolen), but are compelled or committed to hanging out in the home community. And that can be a place where it is so easy to be caught between feeling at home and needing to prove that it is still home.
So this brings us back to Jahshii and Grant’s Pen, a situation which echoes Mavado and Cassava Piece a few years ago, when he intervened in an altercation between his son and someone in the community. That ended in a sprint to the police station. For to be seemingly forced out is to lose ”street creds”, but to voluntarily move out and not return much is to ”rich and switch”.
In the end, to not go is a case of very misplaced loyalties and focus, which is epitomized by the Beenie Man song in which he declares a commitment to ”dis block” that he grew up on, will fight on and die for. He did not mean it, of course, as Moses Davis is a very long way from Craig Town where he says ”Aunt Zeta grow me”. Jahshii may have some growing up to do before he realizes that rich comes with switching, for even if he has not changed, the money changes those on the ”block”. He would be well advised to leave Grant’s Pen to its own devices for a long time.
After all, there is a reason why the Bob Marley Museum is at 56 Hope Road and not in Trench Town.
