Shanti Dope’s camp slams PDEA, warns of danger to artistic freedom
Credit to Author: The Manila Times| Date: Thu, 23 May 2019 12:50:37 +0000
THE camp of Shanti Dope enjoined Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Chief Aaron Aquino to listen to the whole song and not take a few lines out of context.
It said that while anyone was “welcome to interpret a song in any cultural text, it is also clear that for an interpretation to be valid, it needs to have basis, and must be within the context of the cultural text as a whole.”
It slammed the ban as a “brazen use of power and an affront to right to think, write, create, and talk freely about the state of the nation” and warned that this sets “a dangerous precedent for creative and artistic freedom in the country, when a drug enforcement agency can unilaterally decide on what a song is about, and call for its complete ban because it is presumed to go against government’s war on illegal drugs.”
In its explanation of the song, the management said it began with “the persona talking about the ill effects, the violence, and dangers of drugs: “Kamatayan o parak / Na umaga o gabi, may kahabulan / Dami ng nasa ataol pa / Hangang katapusan laki ng kita sa kahuyan.”
It then continues to talk about the lessons from the persona’s father, and how this persona was challenged to go beyond the expected. “Sabi nila sa’kin nung bata, ay / Ano ka kaya pag tanda mo? / Ito hinangad ko lipadin ay mataas pa / Sa kaya ipadama sa’yo ng gramo / ‘Di bale nang musika ikamatay / Kesa pera’t atraso, bala ng amo.”
“This is all in the first part of the song. And none of it promotes marijuana use. In fact it clearly shows the person taking a stand against illegal drugs, while at the same time pointing out that what has made him “fly” (so to speak) is not drugs, but music,” Dope’s management said.
“By the time we reach the song’s chorus, “amatz” already refers to precisely the music through which the persona found his identity — not any form of drugs, but the natural high of creativity and knowing he is the only one who knows to do what he does,” it said.
“This is what the next verse then focuses on, complete with the ideological anchor of Shanti’s upbringing in Buddhism, with references to concepts such as mahamantra and chakra, as a response in the end to those who think they know the persona, but in fact know little about him,” it said.
The Dope management said: “To take apart a song and judge it based on certain lyrics that offend us is unfair to the songwriter; to presume that our reading of a song is the only valid one is offensive to an audience that might be more mature than we think.”
It said that it “took offense at the manner in which this questionable interpretation of the song has been used to malign Shanti himself.”
Dope management said this was what PDEA Director Aquino did when he said: “Hindi pwede ‘yung mga ganitong kind of music na ito at dapat hindi natin tinatangkilik itong mga klaseng artists.”
It asked what kind of artist Dope was if PDEA’s basis for banning his song was wrong. NEIL SERVALLOS, IZA IGLESIAS
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