Ban "Banana".
That was the tongue in cheek response by Bunji Garlin (Ian Alvarez) yesterday to a Cipriani Labour College lecturer's definition of the popular soca hit as musical pornography during an interview on a Jamaican radio talk show on Wednesday.
Bunji, who was speaking during Bmobile's Soca in B Square lunchtime concert performance in Woodford Square, Port of Spain, told the audience that whenever a song was banned it immediately became a bigger hit than it was before.
With the crowd cheering him on, Bunji said he wondered how could his double entendre about a fruit be any more suggestive than songs such as "Mae Mae", "Drunk And Disorderly" and "Saltfish" by the Mighty Sparrow whom he respects highly.
"Saltfish and banana does go together," shouted his wife Fay-Ann Lyons sending the crowd wild as Bunji began to sing the now controversial song.
Soca artistes are angered over the statements made by Dr Kwame Nantambu, a lecturer at Cipriani Labour College and a specialist in Pan-African studies, who said that soca music is responsible for the moral decadence of the nation. In the Jamaica radio interview, he also said that soca should be banned not just in Jamaica, but also here in Trinidad and Tobago.
Calypsonian Chalkdust told the Express yesterday that he agrees that any song promoting vulgarity and violence should be banned, but strongly objected to the notion that all soca music was lewd and suggestive. "I support any ban on songs that are vulgar, but the idea that all soca is offensive, that's foolishness. There is a lot of very good soca music and also Jamaican (reggae-dancehall) music so one can't make a blanket statement like that. There are also derogatory songs that need to be banned like those that preach violence," Chalkdust said.
Rapso artiste and secretary of the Trinbago Unified Calypsonians Organisation, Brother Resistance, said anyone making such pronouncements on soca needs first to examine other popular music on the airways. He also supported Bunji Garlin, saying the song "Banana" is a well crafted bit of double entendre that is in no way lewd and suggestive.
"People who condemn outright the quality of our music need to check themselves and assess other forms of popular music rather than just make a statement like that. Local composers have to pull together and defend the music we put out, not allowing anyone to create such mischief and get away with it.
"Bunji does not have to defend anything on that song ("Banana"). It is well crafted and people can read between the lines how they want, but the song is about the fruit on the surface. As long as the work is not blatantly lewd, vulgar or distressing any gender or anyone a man does not have to explain or defend every line in his song. We not saying we would condone obscenity and such will be dealt with," Resistance said.