Reggae History Changes When You Ask Where The Women Are

I think they are working together.

I think I might even argue that, like, I do agree that there is obviously a hierarchy to the sort of behind the scenes roles.

Right.

That there are certainly more women and maybe like a PR.

Right.

And management dynamic than VP of insert record label or something.

But I think of the women who are doing this work together, there's certainly a concerted effort to work together and those that practice of sort of like.

these informal networks and cooperation, I think is something that was really foregrounded from Sonia Pottinger, right? There are so many interviews of people talking about Sonia Pottinger where they call it her maternal instinct, right? And her ability to produce music, support artists, and, you know, work together in a way that feels like fair for lack of better way of framing, right? And I think, you know, to more directly answer your question, it I think goes back to this point of ownership, right? That, you know, the more women that are particularly maybe like owning their own labels, they're owning their own music that then generates a sort of system where women are working together and then allowing each other to not only, you know, support one another, but then in addition, we do see more ownership, more women in these sort of higher positions that you're trying to get at.

I think one thought that I had was you talk a lot about Sonia Pottiger, but I'm like, where's where's the next Sonia Pottiger, you know? And that I think is kind of sparking something within, in this conversation that I think could be missing.

And I think to your point, ownership could drive that.

There are so many similarities between dancehall, reggae, Caribbean music and, and hip hop.

And I'm like, where are our moguls from? You know what I mean? Like, I feel like they've, they've been like very similar mainstay for a quite a long time.

Um, and there's no turning of the guard, if you will.

And, and that, that isn't women specific.

Um, but I do think that there is a huge opportunity to fill that space, particularly through ownership.

So I think a lot of women like Jamaica, it not shot that talent, you know, it's not short of talent at all, but I think, The behind the scenes definitely has the biggest opportunity to grow.

And I think that is what is needed to see more growth in the music from a global reach perspective.

Because I think the music itself has legs and no one can really deny the talent.

But I think there lies an opportunity to grow.

um drive the growth and not just culturally but from a financial impact as well um like i see reggae and dancehall as as a cultural export of jamaica you know what i mean so why should it not be making money the way that, you know, other industries are.

And we can totally go off on a tangent on that before I bring it back.