ENTITY · CULTURAL PRACTICE
Clean-and-slack double cut
Well supported
The dancehall industry practice of recording two versions of a song, a 'clean' cut for radio and a 'slack' or 'raw' cut for the dance and sound systems, a pragmatic response to airplay standards that itself fuels debates about hypocrisy and censorship.
At a glance
- Type
- cultural practice
- Confidence
- Well supported
- Era
- Open era →
Connections
Debate & reception
How people argued about the music — praise, criticism and public debate. See all debate & reception →
debate
Double-entendre versus explicitness: craft or crudeness?
A neutral account of a craft debate within slackness: coded double-meaning wordplay is praised as witty folk artistry that outwits censors, while explicit content is criticised as crude and gratuitous. Contested taste, no verdict. Sources: Carolyn Cooper, Noises in the Blood; Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage; Jamaica Gleaner archive.
Stance: witty coded double-meaning as folk artistry vs explicit content as crude
debate
Banning the 'bleep': clean airwaves or absurd over-reach?
The 2009 rule barring even bleeped edits of explicit lyrics is stated neutrally from both sides: proponents saw a consistent clean-airwaves standard, while opponents saw an over-reach that pushed content underground and encouraged double versions. No verdict. Sources: Jamaica Gleaner archive; Broadcasting Commission rulings; Global Voices.
Stance: consistent clean-airwaves standard vs over-reach that pushes content underground