Daggering
My cousin’s lady J., like many Jamaicans, has no patience for popular dancehall music and culture. The lyrics and dances that go along with the pulsing riddims make her “heart hurt”, as she puts it, for her 10-year old daughter. Youtube allows nothing to remain indoors so for many people clips from events like Passa Passa and Dirty Fridaze have made dances like daggering and the hot wuk synonymous for Jamaican culture as a whole. As a longtime lover of dancehall, I struggle with its current climate. I love the riddims but can’t get next to the lyrics or p-popping dances. Like hip hop, dancehall was born from poor youth in the ghettos. Like hip hop, there’s serious push back against the misogyny, sexuality and homophobia in much of its content. I love the creativity of the fashion, language and movement that came from that struggle. I love the fierceness of a dancehall queen. But “daggering”, a dance move that is nuttin more than dry frenetic humping, crossed a line for me. Where does dancehall take it from here? Check this preview clip for the film Man/Ooman:
