 Building
a community of artists around Tarantula Records
I think we much prefer new artists
because older artists are so set in their ways and it’s not all good ways.
The star attitude is something that inhibits artists. They don’t work
to their fullest capacity because they have so much attitude hindering
them. It’s like, ‘Oh, I’m above all this. I’m too big to go in the studio
and work properly. And this producer is too small to possibly produce
me.’ Yet, that might be the best person to bring out their sound.
I think new artists are still
hungry, still have that drive, still want to do everything, and have no
hang-ups where music is concerned. It’s like working with clay. You get
a chance to mold it rather than just taking the pot and being stuck with
whatever shape that pot is in. We don’t particularly like many of the
pots [laughs]!
I really see that there’s room
for producers with our kind of attitude. I don’t feel like we have that
many challenges. Our biggest challenge is just getting into the studio
and doing some work. We’re not trying to compete with anything that’s
there. We don’t want to do that. We just want to make something new, different,
and make a difference.
about the equipment
We have our own pre-production
setup that we work on. We have even done some of our finished product
there, too.
Stephen Stanley mixed stuff [at Stanley’s
studio] that sounds good. He’s got a lot of jokes. He’s cool to work with
and really nice. He gets a beautiful sound out of every song he mixes.
I think he’s the best down there.
We have a lot of good studios.
We just don’t have many people who want to utilize them to their fullest.
We keep getting new equipment--into 2004 and into the new age--but it
seems they keep making worse and worse music. Yeah, better equipment,
worse material. I don’t understand.
Maybe, it’s like, ‘Let’s feel like
we’re stars. I’m making money. You can’t talk to me because you’re broke.’
Sean Paul—giving props
where they’re due
Who are up and coming? It’s hard.
I think Kiprich is cool. There’s a new girl named Martina. I don’t know
if you’ve heard of her. She’s doing some wicked things. I can’t identify
[many new artists]. I’ve heard some new voices definitely.
It’s hard. Every time you find
somebody, you say, ‘Okay, here’s some promising person.’ Then they get
stuck in a mold and they go through some recycling in a circle. Then you
just have to say, ‘They were promising but not anymore.’ I don’t know.
I don’t want to give up hope. Of course, all of the old favorites still
have the possibility of coming with wicked songs every now and again,
you know, when they’re forced to, I think.
Nobody’s really that hungry. I think
it’s become too easy. Of course I think Sean
Paul is good. He’s not up and coming at all. But everybody is trying
to act like, ‘Oooh, dancehall is having a good day.’ I don’t think it’s
dancehall. I think Sean Paul really, individually, did what he did. I
don’t think anybody said, ‘Okay, let’s like a dancehall act.’ I think
they actually liked him.
You know how Jamaica is, they act
like, now, if Tanya Stephens comes, she does a good song and it becomes
a hit, then, ‘Oh, the women are having a great year.’ It’s ridiculous.
We don’t like to give props where it’s due.
Sean Paul is good. He really is.
Everything that was done for him was done for Elephant Man and he hasn’t
done the same thing that Sean Paul did.
Andrew states, “They say it’s
because he’s light-skinned.”
But he’s a hard worker. And he’s
nice. He’s a good person. We’ve been talking about him for years. He’s
one of the few artists we can look at and say he’s actually a nice person,
he’s talented, he has a lot of melody in his sound, but he’s also a nice
person. Even after success, he still is a nice person. So, we weren’t
wrong at all.
You know what? He’s been more
Jamaican than the other Jamaicans who came [to America]. Elephant Man
came here and he’s been talking with an accent – an American accent.
Beenie Man did the same thing. Sean Paul is the only one in the international
forum who’s been Jamaican. He talks understandable patois, he talks English,
he talks in his Jamaican accent, you understand what he’s saying, and
he doesn’t need to put on any airs. Everybody else when they talk, you
don’t even understand what the hell they’re saying through all of that
Yankee accent.
I don’t hear you trying to talk like
Jamaicans. It’s ridiculous. It’s like when you come to Jamaica and they’re
trying to sell you something on the beach. [She exaggerates an American
accent] ‘Heeey, maaan…’
You should get one of those t-shirts
that says, “No, I don’t need a beer. No, I don’t need a tour guide. No,
I don’t any need weed.” Then, hope they can read.
Making a difference back home:
equality in the quality of education
I think we have to start with education.
Knowledge is power. If we understand, if we are aware what is happening
to our society then even inner-city kids getting exposed to education
will know exactly what’s happening to them, then they can break the mold.
They can change it.
It has to start from early education.
Right now, we start going to school at two. Some of the people who teach
kindergarten kids… If you’re poor, you don’t get exposed to the best education.
Then you end up with people teaching who need to go back to school themselves.
If we start to attach more importance to the kids and we’re going to send
them to school, [we need to] have someone who can lay a proper foundation
and what’s going to be built on it. Then we can make a difference. Honestly.
Yes, I went to school totally in Jamaica.
But every year it gets worse. At one point the last time I checked a few
years ago, we had the sixth lowest literacy rate in the world. Now, that’s
powerful. We have to raise that. I didn’t check again because it was too
sad.
The stigma of being poor &
the pressure to flex like you’re not
School fees are hard and we have
stupid stigmas. We have some practices, which I don’t understand how we
come up with them. I remember when I was going to school and I had to
get hand-me-down shoes. Now, whatever color shoes were handed down were
the shoes I had to wear. I was sent home a few times because I had the
wrong color shoes. It’s ridiculous. It’s stupid. If I was an A student,
why would you want to disrupt my educational process for a stupid pair
of shoes? Stuff like this happens all the time.
One time my Vice-Principal dyed
my cream colored shoes brown because the school shoe color was brown.
It was ridiculous. I had my classmates laughing at me. I didn’t want to
go to school anyway because that was a stigma. It’s just stupid rules
like ‘no French-cut panties’ and stuff like that. And that was the whole
concept of wearing uniforms in the first place to get rid of stuff (materialism
and external validation) like that. It’s disgusting.
Oh God, and the men do it [material
display despite poverty] too. They drive some really nice cars, which
cost a pretty penny, and they’re coming out of this little zinc house.
No, it’s not a joke, but at first, I laughed. I laughed because it looked
funny but then after a while, I was like, ‘It’s sad. This is sad.’
Twisted mentalities & it’s
practical to be almost naked
It’s like they have such twisted mentalities.
I remember one time I went into the registrar’s office. I wanted to get
a copy of my birth certificate and I had on a pair of shorts and a midriff
blouse. The security turned me back. I couldn’t go in because I was inappropriately
dressed to get a copy of my birth certificate. We attach importance to
such stupid things. It’s a tropical climate. It’s hot as hell and you
want me to come dressed fully clad to get a copy of my birth certificate?
Things like these we attach importance to and not really important stuff.
That’s why we’re in the state we’re in.
It’s practical to be almost naked.
It’s really stupid but well, it’s the world. Welcome to it.
Parting words
There’s a really nice quote
that you can spread to people. I got it from Neale Donald Walsch. He wrote
the book Conversations with God. He said, “Live simply so others
can simply live.” I think that’s a beautiful saying and it’s worth repeating.
It makes sense.
~ * ~
With
those words, the two of us went on with our lives trying our damnedest
to live simply.
Monica Espiritu and Laura
Gardner are "dancehall feminists." They spend time in the clubs
making fun of all the latest dance moves, all the while enjoying themselves
to the max.
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