February 01, 2017
 |
| Alkaline |
Record
producer Smoodface says the Jamaican music industry lacks professionalism
and the requisite quality control that are necessary for practitioners to earn
big bucks from the music.
“The
local space has a crab inna barrel culture that is hampering the growth of the
music internationally. This is why the foreigners are using our content and
making millions from it while we fight against each other for peanuts. Two key
factors separate our industry from our more successful American counterparts,
one is professionalism and the other is quality control," Smoodface
said.
Smoodface
is known for his work on hits like Tom Cruise by Don Andre and Mek
The Money by
Alkaline.
The
producer said that when artistes choose money over quality it will ulultimately
destroy Jamaica’s rich musical heritage and undermine the work of other acts
who are trying to make a positive impact on the world.
In a
recent interview with THE STAR,
Smoodface highlighted recent attempts by some overseas media outlets to
re-brand dancehall with new labels like Tropical House. He is of the view
Jamaican musicians should be working overtime to hone their craft so as to
reduce the level of exploitation from foreigners.
"As
a body we need to stop this. As a group we need to be more consistent as it
relates to ensuring that the music we release is always properly recorded,
mixed and mastered. We need to ensure that quality is not a limiting factor and
we also need to do the required paperwork to ensure that what is due to us we
will receive,” he said.
Artistes
like Drake, Rihanna, Tory Lanez, Magic, Adam Levine, Justin Bieber, Sia, Major
Lazer among others have managed to climb atop the Hot 100 Billboard chart with
reggae/dancehall hits. However, despite releasing millions of records per year,
Jamaica-based dancehall/reggae artistes are rarely visible on that chart.
Smoodface blames the quality of the Jamaican product.
“Many
of these overseas based major labels simply copy our content and produce it at
a higher quality. They then successfully market it to an undiscriminating
dancehall-thirsty international market simply because we failed to do our
homework and have our house in check,” he said.
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