Put back the ‘dance’ in dancehall – Gramps Morgan

Grammy-winning artiste Gramps Morgan is continuing the conversation about the need for the improvement in the overall quality of the music and he is also on a mission to see the dance revived in dancehall.

"We need to come together and find a way to do it. We need better productions, better lyrics and sing some songs of life, love and appreciation. Me long fi see man and woman a bubble rub-a-dub style and some bottom a roll on the dancefloor," he told THE STAR cheekily.

"We need the rent-a-tile kind of dancing, classy and sensuous, not the 'daggering' thing. Everybody is a gangsta these days? Nobody loves vagina anymore?" he quizzed.

Gramps, a member of the sibling group, Morgan Heritage, released a "danceable" solo album last year, titled Positive Vibration, which has been nominated for a Grammy award. He describes it as "a fusion of the sounds of ska and mento blended to produce the beats, along with the country and western sounds from two Nashville guitar and some banjo".

Gramps also tipped his hat to Shaggy, who has production credits on Spice's Grammy-nominated debut album, 10.

"Shaggy took a step back to push Spice forward. He delayed his own album to work on Spice's and that is commendable. We need to be doing projects ... solid albums and not so much one-riddim albums. We have to understand that there is the culture and then there is the industry," he said.

Gramps' argument about the difference between the culture and the music industry is aligned with that of Grammy-nominated producer Cristy Barber. Barber told THE STAR that of the 125 albums which were submitted for Grammy consideration in the reggae category "77 were artiste albums and the rest were various artistes albums, the bulk of them being one riddim albums which the voters do not understand". She had opined that "A one-riddim album that only reggae people know about is not going to get a nomination".

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Gramps, who has been in Jamaica promoting Positive Vibration, is also celebrating acquiring his Jamaican passport, having received his Jamaican citizenship.