The Chimalpahin Conference 2007:
Colonial and Post-Colonial Remembering and Forgetfulness
October 16 - 18, 200
7
Jafakin? Non-Jamaican Reggae Music and Cross-Cultural Identification
Baz Dreisinger
Department of English
John Jay College of Criminal Justice,
City University of New York
Nasio Fontaine, the son of a Carib Indian mother and a father of African descent, has long locks and a stirring, world-weary voice. Elan spent three years as lead singer of the Wailers, Bob Marley's former band. Both released stellar reggae albums, and both admit to being occasionally mistaken for one of Bob Marley's sons.
Neither, however, is Jamaican: Elan is an Orthodox Jew from Los Angeles; Fontaine is a Rastafarian from the island of Dominica. All that unites them, geographically speaking, is that they don't hail from the birthplace of reggae music. And in an era of musical globalization and cook-up culture--set in a region of the world that is still emerging from the shadows of colonialism--it is worth reflecting on whether that, in fact, matters. In a paper about the increasing number of non-Jamaican reggae acts, from Matisyahu to Snow, I consider that question, analyzing the dynamic of cross-cultural encounters as manifested in the music scene. Are there unspoken rules and regulations guiding those who identify with and profit from a musical world deemed not their own? How do such artists negotiate the musical crossing of boundaries that their work entails? How do they grapple with the questions of authenticity that plague artists attempting to be so bold as to culturally cross over?
About Baz Dreisinger
BAZ DREISINGER obtained her Ph.D. in English from Columbia University and is currently an Assistant Professor of English at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York. She is also a freelance journalist who has written about Caribbean music, hip-hop culture, race-related issues and popular culture for the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Blender, Vibe, The Nation and the Village Voice. Her book "Near Black: White-to-Black Passing in American Culture" will be published by the University of Massachusetts Press in 2008. She is also the producer and writer of the documentary "Black & Blue: Legends of the Hip-Hop Cop," which investigates the NYPD's monitoring of the hip-hop industry.