About Pete Expertise STRICTLY NO SONG ID QUESTIONS PLEASE
I can answer questions on Reggae/Rasta and Jamaican related FILMS, documentaries, +live filmed performances.
REGGAE+JA+RASTA FILM RELATED QUESTIONS ONLY PLEASE...
NO DANCEHALL QUESTIONS PLEASE
Experience Been a collector for about 16 years now. I collect and catalogue hard to find reggae and jamaican films/documentaries.
Question I just started listening to Jamaican music and I have a stupid question- I know Jamaicans have a thick accent but some of these lyrics are indecipherable. For instance- Sean Paul's "Infiltrate". WTF? Is it just some sort of Jamaican patois or are they singing a nonsense language?
Answer Hi
Most jamiacan artists sing in their native toungue Patois eg it takes some getting used to, your best bet is to search the web for a patois dictionary u can download some free ones or there are plenty of books on amazon. Most JA or dancehall artists sing in Patois aswell as singing very fast so it can be very hard to understand even sometimes to natives with the sean paul thing i think he sort of legnthens the timing of some of his words so they can be difficult to understand most lyrics do have meanings u do get the odd one or two where u might get some nonsense words thrown in with some dancehall songs the only way to id what they are actually saying would be to slow down the play speed! they speak so fast sometimes. Also the dancehall slang used in the dancehalls changes from month to month just like a fashion so it can be very hard to understand what they are talking about theres a book called Dancehall Phrases which i can reccomend they also use numbers instead of words sometimes so u gotta be in the know to understand it all. It helps alot if u can actually understand patois then it comes alot easier but even then it can be hard. Hope that helps..........
