Like this:

So I decided to watch Rihanna”s latest offering Man Down. Following on the heels of S&M I wasn’t sure how to interpret that title, but hey it was filmed in Jamaica! Must see!

Starts out with her shooting some guy in a place labelled as central station. Since Mike Henry’s gravy train has come in but Jamaicans are still waiting on the local railway to run I assume it’s creative license.

They then go back in time.  I start taking in the lyrics and it says basically that she killed a man by breaking his heart.  No big deal.  Her accent is acceptable as a Bajan trying patois… or maybe I was distracted by jugs of life. When she says she shot him I wondered if she meant ‘gun inna baggy’…… ohh wait …. nope … mixing it up with S&M again.

Then there is the dancehall scene because you can’t have a video shot in Jamaica without a visit to the authentic dancehall. Hold up, there’s the guy she shot! They dannnnc…. gyrate and then she leaves the dance. He has a scar on his face and looks real thuggy! He catches her in an alley and he attempts to romance her rude bwoy style. The ‘gimme dis gal’ encounter ends with Rihanna on the ground battered and bruised, implying she was raped and we now understand why she shot him in the beginning.

My girl! Really!? Ba’dos don’t have enough rapists you couldn’t use one a dem? You had to come all di way to Jamaica fi find a rapist? Seriously?! Not to mention the incongruity of the video and the lyrics.

I find it hard to believe that this is the first video to feature rape but damn it man why you gotta pick us to do your therapy? You couldn’t come here, light some trees and find a rent a dread like Sade and everybody else weh come yah?

Jah kno star me ben!

 

 

P.S.  Folks it’s not that the issue didn’t need ventilating.  It is a very real issue and it’s frequency is appalling!  I am concerned that they shot it in Jamaica using scenes that are the norm in our Jamaica Tourist Board ads: sun, sea, sand, our ppl, country districts, dancehall, our dancing…. things that made me feel like it was an authentic Jamaican experience.  I was there trying to figure out which district and all and getting a nice fuzzy feeling inside at the way they captured some of the good qualities, when I see the assault!  If it’s a shock value they were looking, it worked!

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