BACA condemns Peter Ram’s controversial lyrics

By Shamar Blunt

 

Peter Peter Ram Wiggins will be getting no support from the Barbados Association of Creatives and Artists (BACA) as he faces criticism and a potential lawsuit for allegedly defamatory statements made about another calypsonian, Ian iWeb Webster.

In fact, BACA president Colin Spencer says the type of behaviour exhibited by the veteran artist on stage at Soca Junction last week, was a culmination of years of performers delivering low blows in their songs.

Spencer told Barbados TODAY that while the association does not intend to get involved in the matter, it had discussed what had transpired.

“We are not in support of the comments that were made by Peter Ram, that is our [position]. I don’t think anyone can support it,” he said on Tuesday.

Ram was performing at the soca event when he sang lyrics that King’s Counsel Michael Lashley, attorney for iWeb, said were defamatory.

Lashley has served notice he will be pursuing legal action against Ram on his client’s behalf, seeking damages and an apology.

Spencer told Barbados TODAY that despite the public perception that artists have the creative leeway to express themselves as they see fit in their lyrics, they also have a responsibility to not slander or defame individuals.

“The leeway on stage is one thing but you still have to be tactful in how you put over what you want to say about anyone. I am one of the calypsonians who generally call names in songs, but my calling names in songs has always been because of my thinking that names add faces to your story. The story you create, whether real or fictitious, should be done in good taste,” he insisted.

The seasoned calypsonian said, however, that for many years during the Crop Over season, songs have been used to deliver personal attacks on other artists.

“I have never been in support of what I heard at [Pic-O-De-Crop] finals over the years. Only this morning I said in a chat that I saw this coming a long time ago, and a lot of it has its genesis and origins in what is sung at finals every year. Instead of calypsonians going to finals and seeking to develop or enhance their stories, they go and sing a lot of crap about each other,” the BACA president said.

“I’ve never been part of it, I’ve never liked it…. It’s nonsense… It’s about cheap laughs at people’s expense to get a reaction from the audience. That is foolishness.”

Ram issued an apology on his social media page, saying he regretted any offence caused to the artists named during his freestyle performance. He said he was upset about lyrics in a social commentary piece iWeb recently released which mentioned him.

Meanwhile, Spencer expressed another concern about calypso during the Crop Over season. He said that while many young performers are interested in singing social commentary, not enough young people are writing these pieces.

“What I am not hearing from a lot of people that concerns me, and should concern everyone, [is that there] are no writers that are coming through. I had a discussion in a chat recently [and] someone made the comment that calypso is in good hands…. It might be in good hands in terms of participation, but you cannot [and] will not progress unless writers come through,” he said.

“Since Edwin Yearwood in 1995, and the Water Street Boyz – Cheyne Jones and Ian Webster – within the last ten years, you can’t give me the name of a young composer who has emerged and displayed any level of consistency at social commentary, so that is a problem.”

The BACA head noted that though Barbadians may see soca writing as easier than composing songs for the annual Pic-O-De-Crop competition, creative social commentary writing is far from difficult.

“Some people try to give you the impression that songwriting is some God-given gift; it’s not God-given. Songwriting, like anything else, once you practise, you listen to what has been written before, the way how songs are crafted, you get it done. But people need to show an interest in it.

“What is really happening is a matter of convenience – I have the money that I can afford to buy a song so I am going to go that route, I am not going to bother my head with trying to develop and craft myself. I am working for some money, I can afford it, so I will go into my comfort zone and purchase a song – but we need composers to emerge.”

While Spencer noted that there was a noticeable effort from the National Cultural Foundation (NCF) over the years to conduct songwriting workshops, he said that needs to be expanded to focus on young writers and go into rural areas.

“The centralisation of all of these projects and workshops, I am not sure and I am not seeing the evidence that that has reaped us any significant benefit. Maybe they [need] to take these workshops into the country districts, into the different parishes and what have you and see what happens,” he said.

shamarblunt@barbadostoday.bb