Fully Bad, Skatta Burrell look to change musical status quo
As dancehall artistes continue to face criticism for helping to fuel the country’s crime problem through their gun rhetoric, renowned producer Cordel ‘Skatta’ Burrell has teamed up with fast-rising dancehall star Fully Bad to ‘switch up’ the status quo.
The pair recently released the track, We Nah Smile Again, a hardcore track with some gritty truths about the atrocities of today’s world, but one curated minus the murder and mayhem that usually punctuates a dancehall track.
Burrell said that when he introduced Fully Bad to the rhythm, he asked the young act to dig deep and speak on a level where he could touch people.
“I told him to do some investigation into the state of his community, find out how the yutes dem feel, look at crime and the fact that there is only one story being told and speak as a yute representing every yute on all levels. I told him I wanted him to draw from the negativity and to zone in on empowering them. And I told him he could do it in his hardcore persona,” Burrell said.
Fully Bad came up with We Nah Smile Again. Burrell said that having seen how capable the artiste was, he realised that changing the status quo was not ‘mission impossible’.
YOU CAN EFFECT CHANGE
“As an artiste you have to look at the business of music now and see how can you can effect change and how you do that is by going against the status quo and
Fully Bad
doing the things that are not so popular,” he said. “What I want the public to understand is that these artistes are capable of doing the right thing so don’t give up on them. And they need the support. People complaining about the state of the music but what you support is what is running the place, so support the right things.”
Being identified as a ‘gangster deejay’, Fully Bad said he wanted to show people that “we can do positive songs too”.
“This song show say people will support any kind of music once it is good quality. People wah hear other things too and as an artiste when you switch things up, it make yuh fan base wider because the kids a listen, the elders, the Christian, the police. It’s good to spread your wings and not get stuck in one box,” he said.