‘Fully dunce’ slang concerns Shaka Pow

Medical doctor and recording artiste Shaka Pow is concerned that the popularity of dancehall slang, 'fully dunce', will have a negative impact on listeners, especially young males.

To counter this, he has committed to recording a song titled Fully Brite to celebrate intelligence.

"As a slang like 'hothead', 'fully bad', 'thug life', 'gwalers', 'genna', my fear is that to the impressionable minds, especially young boys who are underperforming at the secondary and tertiary matriculation educational levels, the slang will validate this problem and make boys and young men think it's OK to get none or few subjects as the norm and not strive to excel and go to college and university," he reasoned.

"It has entertainment benefit and is very catchy ... still it is important to counter this argument of dunceness as we want the best for our population ...where a child especially, our boys, need to know it's cool to be bright, brilliant, outspoken, knowledgeable, and polished when the need arises or be his/her way of life," he added.

He also emphasised to young listeners that these lyrics that they are enjoying were not recorded by artistes who are uneducated.

"Education helps with critical-thinking and decision-making. In modern-day music, intellect is a plus ... I put this to you ... construction of these lyrics is not of dunce minds, neither are the crimes in society ... it's the channelling of our intellect to positive uplifting of our people," he said.

The Unconditional Love singer, who is pursuing a master's degree in health administration at the University of Technology Jamaica, and is training in cosmetic surgery, described his hope for Fully Brite.

"Art mirrors life and exaggerates it ... This song now will point to our parenting skills, programmes and policies, and our ability to save our marginalised boys and young men as a society," he said.

In an excerpt of the song, he shared, " Mi si dung inna the front addi class plus mi study from day till nite ...fully brite! Hi grade, addi to a di class ... don't want to live nuh next life, fully brite."