Jab = possession music

One of the biggest hits for Carnival 2019 is Mr Killa’s Run Wid It.

 

For those unfamiliar with the style, it is referred to as Jab, a sub-genre of soca which I posted on before. In terms of soca, there are no better musical sub-generes suited to talk about spiritual possession more than Jab because Jab, for all intents and purposes is possession/trance music. It ticks all the boxes. For example:

  1. Jab like other possession music is all about the repetition. You need to say stuff over and over.
  2. Jab has no chords. There is also little to no harmonic movement in possession music (chords, chordal instruments like a piano or guitar), especially with possession music of the African diaspora.
  3. Jab music is rhythmic.

To see what I mean check the music from Cuban Santeria below:

 

It is obvious, Jab is meant to induce possession.

The psycho-acoustic explanation for this is that the repeated patterns lead to less distraction which in turn can manipulate the trance-like state. For the more spiritual, these rhythms carry with them certain deities and given the reaction to this song, I think the latter definitely has a point.  Check below:

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fdavid.isaac.9674%2Fvideos%2F10218678247008579%2F&show_text=0&width=560

So that my friends a brief look at Jab and its relation to possession music. Whenever this song plays, just be careful, it is meant to take a HOLD of you.

 

 

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stefanwalcott

Stefan Walcott is a Barbadian pianist and composer. Throughout his career, Stefan has been privileged to perform with and write for a wide cross-section of artists, both in England where he studied and in his native Barbados. Stefan has arranged for Nicholas Brancker, the Brazilian Sinfonica and created Handel’s Caribbean Messiah, a re-working of the classical work. Stefan currently is director of the 1688 Collective a production company and 1688 Dingolay Inc. a not-for-profit. Stefan currently has a PhD in cultural studies with interest in music of the English-speaking Caribbean.

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