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About This Book
Megawattage sound systems have blasted the electronically-enhanced riddims and tongue-twisting lyrics of Jamaica's dancehall DJs across the globe. This high-energy raggamuffin music is often dismissed by old-school roots reggae fans as a raucous degeneration of classic Jamaican popular music. In this provocative study of dancehall culture, Cooper offers a sympathetic account of the philosophy of a wide range of dancehall DJs: Shabba Ranks, Lady Saw, Ninjaman, Capleton, Buju Banton, Anthony B and Apache Indian. Cooper also demonstrates the ways in which the language of dancehall culture, often devalued as mere 'noise, ' articulates a complex understanding of the border clashes which characterize Jamaican society, and analyzes the sound clashes that erupt in the movement of Jamaican dancehall culture across national borders.
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Table of contents
- Cover
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Word, Sound, and Power
- ONE: Border Clash: Sites of Contestation
- TWO: Slackness Personified: Representations of Female Sexuality in the Lyrics of Bob Marley and Shabba Ranks
- THREE: Lady Saw Cuts Loose: Female Fertility Rituals in the Dancehall
- FOUR: "Mama, Is That You?": Erotic Disguise in the Films
- FIVE: "Lyrical Gun": Metaphor and Role-Play in Dancehall Culture
- SIX: "More Fire": Chanting Down Babylon from Bob Marley to Capleton
- SEVEN: "Vile Vocals": Exporting Jamaican Dancehall Lyrics to Barbados
- EIGHT: Hip-hopping across Cultures: Reggae to Rap and Back
- NINE: "Mix Up the Indian with All the Patwa": Rajamuffin Sounds in Cool Britannia
- TEN: The Dancehall Transnation: Language, Lit/orature, and Global Jamaica
- Notes
- Works Cited
- Permissions
- Index