When Ravi B released 'Rum is meh lover', singing about rum was still quite a novelty, most people, myself included fell in love with it for many reasons. In the following years many artist followed this route of singing about rum to the tune of old and not so old indian songs (oh how my grandparents must be hating this in the afterlife). This brought them various degrees of success and I for one can't blame the artist for doing this. Just like many of us they have families to take care of and if its making money they should go for it.
The problem is when you hear primary school children singing "Rum is Meh Lover", "Bar Man give Meh ah Guiness and Puncheon", "Bring D Rum" etc. Should we blame the artist, the media or the parents, i'll leave it up to you to decide. I have my view but that will lead into a whole new discussion.
I refuse to believe in this country of many talented people that songwriters cannot come up with original soca chutney music. Maybe they have, but because of the demand of the drunken thousands they choose the rum, or as was hinted to by Andy Singh in a gayelle interview their music is not getting airplay. That interview hinted to the presence of a chutney mafia where only selected songs are being played, more on that later.
Another question I have and maybe someone who is reading this may be able to answer, were all the required approvals obtained from the copyright holders to ensure that this level of sampling was sanctioned. If not then it might be in the best interest of all involved that the music stay confined to T&T, Guyana & the respective diaspora all over the world. I shudder to imagine the legal ramifications if the Indian Copyright Office gets a hold of this.
It may take one brave artist to change or it may take all of us. Only time will tell........
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