Rapso performance makes a statement about national identity but also speaks to spirituality and respect. By claiming a rapso identity, one is making a com- mitment to create music of a higher standard or ideal: conscious music, posi- tive messages, and social commentary. Rapso music educates, recounts or rewrites history, challenges authority to right historical wrongs, celebrates life, and validates the emotions and experiences of its community. Brother Resis- tance’s “Ring de Bell” is a song of spirituality and of rebellion. In his words, “Ring de Bell” is “celebrating the power of African religion in the Caribbean and how that religion has, to a great extent, embraced a people and taken them from that period of slavery and bring them to emancipation.” He explained,
It’s one of those things . . . Usually religion is a thing that does really . . . lock down people in a way, mentally and spiritually, but in terms of the Baptist and in terms of the Orisha and even Rasta, these are religions that release people, that push people forward and empower them in a certain kind of way. So “Ring de Bell” celebrates that, and the bell is depicted as a symbol of resistance, as a symbol of liberation, because you know at one time when Baptist people ring their bell on a street corner and police come in, they had to run. We used to get lockup for worshiping God! Ah mean, that’s how dread the colonial system was. So “Ring de Bell” celebrates all of that in a people, and it calls on the leaders to gather the people who have the same vision, who have the same mission, an’ leh we move forward for justice, for culture and for freedom, and of course for de rapso riddum.20
Rapso artist Karega Mandela locates his motivation for creating rapso in his desire to uplift the oppressed and dispossessed.21 His most celebrated rapso song, “Never Surrender,” recounts the achievements of the African people and observes, “We’ve been oppressed for a very long time, but we never surrender.” Acknowledging that the colonial mind-set still exists in Trinidad, his mission is to instill a sense of self-pride in the youth who may feel inferior due to their racial or economic status.
Rastafarianism is also a signi‹cant thread that weaves through much of rapso performance practice and ideology. Subscribing to the teachings of Mar- cus Garvey, the Rastafarian ethos of Black pride and self-determination, anti- colonialism, and rejection of “Babylon” is mirrored in rapso artists’ politics and activism and is demonstrated by Brother Resistance’s performance and call to
action during Sheldon Blackman’s Re-loaded concert. Brother Resistance, him- self a Rastafarian, brought Rasta consciousness to the performance through its embodiment in his person and as it was invoked in song via the reference to Marcus Garvey.22
Rapso is a performance genre and an ideology, but rapso occupies a dual position within Trinbagonian society. Trinidad, the womb out of which rapso was born, can be a hostile environment for artists whose work deals with seri- ous themes and who assume strong positions in the interest of self-determina- tion. Brother Book elaborates on this reality when discussing the reception of local audiences to rapso music.
Appreciation? Mild, lukewarm. It have to be worked upon. And it’s not by acci- dent. I don’t expect it to be blooming and ›ourishing, because people who run the society do not appreciate anything local. The steelband movement is a ‹ght down. The kaiso (calypso) movement is a ‹ght down. Everything we produce, the people here who in authority does ‹ght it down . . . They don’t want noth- ing positive . . . Wine and jam, nani and totie,23penis and vagina . . . that is the
music they pushing, and if you playing that on the radio constantly, the weak minds must go along that line, so I’m not surprised at the reception. The rapso artists know that they must keep persevering. They have to keep persevering. And when the work is necessary, they must put down the work.24
Rapso artists have a history of social activism that continues to this day. Early rapso involvement in trade union activism, labor strikes, and grassroots community development is now augmented by work in arts advocacy, educa- tion, prison reform, and regional crisis response efforts, such as assisting with relief efforts in Grenada after the destruction of Hurricane Ivan in 2004. As so- cial conditions in the nation deteriorate, the activist work of the rapso artist be- comes more crucial.
Trinidad and Tobago is facing growing concerns from its citizens about vi- olent crime, kidnapping, racial intolerance and discrimination, corruption, poverty, and declining morality. What is perceived by Trinbagonians to be a so- ciety in crisis is the daily subject of radio talk shows, television news, and print and online newspaper headlines. An article in the Los Angeles Times brought news of the escalating rate of abductions in Trinidad to an international read- ership, noting that “an ugly social ill threatens the perpetual party atmosphere: [it is] kidnapping, a crime so epidemic that Trinidad ranks second in the world behind Colombia for its rate of abductions.”25
Yet despite these negative trends, Trinidad and Tobago is a nation whose distinctiveness lies in its festival aesthetic. Although Carnival is the nation’s most widely recognized festival, it is important to note that festivals are used to celebrate and commemorate a host of holidays and signi‹cant occasions.26 Sheldon Blackman views this festival aesthetic as both a strength and a weak- ness for the nation of Trinidad and Tobago. Speaking about Trinidadian cul- tural politics, he contends,
We have a carnival mentality. It is productive yet still destructive . . . We live for that time. And even our music industry is structured that way. Three months of Carnival and love it [local music]. And after that, it’s foreign music, nine months of the year. And the artist that produces [local] music during that time struggles because you can’t hear your music on the radio. During carnival time the music that is being focused upon is jump and wave.27It’s beautiful, it’s fes-
tival music. But we live our life in that festival. We don’t even protest seriously. We protest like we’re dancing and singing, which is good, which is part of us, but we need to consider our way seriously because there are too many things falling apart around us.28
Roger Roberts of 3canal expressed similar sentiments when he noted,
We live in a crucial time, not only in Trinidad, but globally, and if you have spe- cial gifts or talents and you have a microphone in your hand, that comes with responsibility. That’s why I choose to do it in a positive way or in a way that might uplift or agitate someone to explore deeper or to think rather than just have a good time all the time. That’s important too, but we do a lot of that in Trinidad. We celebrate a lot and we party a lot, but we don’t think and plan and consider and research and develop and protect ourselves enough.29
For the rapso artists, the message of their work is of the greatest signi‹- cance. Their music and performances provide a platform for their words. Yet the extent to which their words are heard is mediated by the political economy of cultural production in Trinidad and Tobago.