What Jah Cure And Other Black Artists Need to Know When Abroad!

When traveling abroad, how many of us take the time to extend our research beyond the popular tourist sites and good restaurants to familiarize ourselves with the cultural mores and laws of a country? I was a teenager when the movie “Midnight Express” came out and I have never forgotten the film’s depiction of a Turkish prison. So when I read that Jamaican reggae singer, Jah Cure had been sentenced to six years in prison in the Netherlands for stabbing a music promoter, I just shook my head in dismay.

How many of us still haven’t read the memo? As Black people, whatever we do within our mostly homogeneous communities, we must remember to pivot when we go out into the wider world and acknowledge like Dorothy “…we’re not in Kansas, anymore!”. Unfortunately, some famous artists and athletes of the African Diaspora don’t understand that their celebrity status, their gravitas, their influence at home, do not hold the same prestige abroad. Some seem to “believe their press” that they’re different from the Black masses or have an honorary status until they realize they don’t. Back in 2019, A$AP Rocky found out that the Swedes were unimpressed by his prowess as a rapper and a street fighter. Other practitioners (Sheck Wes, RichtheKid, SnoopDogg, and G-Eazy) of his guild, shared testimonies of the European hospitality reserved especially, it seems for Black rappers.

Although Jah Cure became popular in the late ’90s for his mournful love songs, many reggae lovers have always remained skeptical of him, since he served eight years in a Jamaican prison for raping a young woman (among other charges). In the song, “True Reflection” recorded while incarcerated, Jah Cure sings poignantly about imprisonment and pleads for redemption for his youthful transgressions.

Now, more than two decades later, did his past imprisonment recede from his memory that day in Amsterdam? Did he think he was untouchable? Did he forget he wasn’t at home? In the singer’s defense, his lawyer contended that the stabbing was “part of the Jamaican reggae culture”. How embarrassing a defense that normalizes internecine violence! Sadly, Jah Cure et al seem not to remember that when they’re overseas, regardless of their perceived status, foreign authorities are intent on sending an unambiguous message to Black celebrities who flout their laws.