Jamaica Gangsters Pt. I

I'm a big fan of Jamaican culture and people. The musical heritage is amazing and they continue to produce amazing quantities of quality (albeit dance oriented) music. The people are amazingly warm and their accents are badass.

Speaking of badass, for a country so well known for its beaches

and buddah smoking Rastas Jamaica has a deep history and tradition of gangsters in its culture.

How does a country's stereotypical image include this:

This...

and this?

Jamaica's tradition of Gangsterism in popular culture dates back at least the 1970's and has heavily influenced pop culture in the UK and the United States. In 1973 the Jamaican film The Harder They Come starring reggae star Jimmy Cliff opened. The film follows the trajectory of a real life Jamaican gangster, Rhyging.

Other films like a sequel (The Harder They Fall) and Rockers continued the tradition of Jamaican gangster flicks. Immigration from the island led to new breeds of musical styles influenced by Jamaica in the UK and the US (Will tackles this in second part of post) and a new image of the Jamaican gangster. Slang like "Rude Boy" and "Yardie" which originally refered to the juvenile delinquents in Kingston and resident of the government housing projects (yards) in Trenchtown, took on a new meanings in their immigrant context, as gangsters.

So obviously when I saw this trailer for the movie Shottas (another slang for gangster),

I was stoked about the prospect of a revival of the Jamaican gangster flick.

To be continued...