Ah Drinka won Ravi "Ravi-B" Bissambhar the 2010 Chutney Soca Monarch title at the January 30 show at Skinner Park, San Fernando. It is one of a long line of hits that seem to celebrate alcoholism. "You can't change me, no way. Girl, you know I was a drinker," he sings in the song's chorus, echoing hits like Mr Shankar, Bring It, Bring de Rum, and Rum Til I Die, songs by the most popular chutney soca artists over the past few years. Guardian columnist Prakash Persad wrote, in a column published February 22, "...the songs are representative of the foul vomit being deposited on the entertainment stage and which is being eagerly lapped up."
Chutney soca writer and producer Zaheer "Big Rich" Khan begs to differ.
Khan, who produced 11 of the 12 songs in the final–and all the rum songs in the show–said the songs reflect reality. "People pretending they don't do these things. All the songs is about everyday life things," Khan said in a telephone interview, two weeks after Carnival. He disagreed with the position that rum songs encourage drinking. It's the other way around, he said: the songs are popular because they are played or performed at venues where drinking is going on anyway.
"Let's say I don't do any rum songs. That is not going to decrease drinking and driving. It's not going to save no lives. In a fete of 1,000 people 975 would be drinking (alcohol), whether there was a rum song or not." Alcoholism rates in the Indian community exceed those in the African-Trinidadian community, according to 2000 figures from the National Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention Centre. The figures were cited in a paper called Variations in Alcohol-Metabolising Enzymes in People of East Indian and African Descent from Trinidad and Tobago, by Shelley Moore; LK Montane-Jaime, MD, et al.
"Ethnic studies investigating the prevalence of alcoholism in Trinidad and Tobago found that alcoholism prevalence is substantially higher among Indo-Trinidadians than among Afro-Trinidadians. For example, a recent assessment survey reported an alcohol problem rate of 47 per cent among Indo-Trinidadians, compared with 33 per cent among Afro-Trinidadians." In a column in the Sunday Guardian on January 31, Dr Indira Rampersad wrote, "Alcoholism is an integral aspect of Indian culture. Several of us would remember our Arjee or Nani as an elderly woman who toiled all day in the sugar cane fields under the blazing hot sun. When drenched to the bones by the merciless, tropical rains, she would turn to the petit quart to warm up her soul." Indeed, Sundar Popo carefully reminded us about Nana drinking white one and Nani drinking wine."
Crossover soca/chutney soca artist Michael "Soca Elvis" Salloum, for one, welcomes the rum song. He has performed nation-building songs, as well as songs about other topics, but his 2010 offering is called Rum Doh Bother Me. "It's the biggest song I ever had. It became an instant hit. (After it was released) by the following day people were saying, 'Them pirates playing that song all on the road.' I started getting calls for the major shows right away. "If I go out there and I sing my patriotic song, the crowd is not going to respond," he said in a telephone interview on March 1, a day after returning from a gig in Toronto. Neeshan "D'Hitman" Prabhoo is best known for his rum songs Bring de Rum, Firewater, and Put up Your Glass–all written by Big Rich.
In an e-mail message responding to interview questions for this story, Prabhoo said blaming music for the social problem of alcoholism in the Indian community is crediting the artiste with more power than he really has. "Because of the number of rum songs that are being done now it is more visible in the public eyes, thus the perception that it is bringing down Indian culture, but what the people need to look at is that these very same rum songs are the said songs that cross over to other markets. "I would agree that, yes, there are too many songs being sung about rum today but I will not say it is bringing down our society."
Not everyone feels that way, however. Radio DJ-cum-chutney soca singer Shael Gyan refused to do a rum song for his debut this year. Instead, he wrote and performed Lazy Daisy, a song about a love affair with a lazy girl. It got him to the Chutney Soca Monarch semifinals. In an interview done via Internet chat on March 3, Gyan said, "I drink socially as much as the next guy but it shouldn't be something that defines you or be the message that you send out. This was my first foray into chutney music. I didn't want that to be my defining content. I went for social commentary that everyone can relate to, that's funny and the whole family can listen to.
"Do I regret it? Absolutely not. I didn't win. I didn't make the final but I constantly meet people wherever I go who comment that my song was not a rum song and they applaud me for it." In his opinion, the popularity of rum songs may not influence adult behaviour, but "makes it socially acceptable for younger people to grow up being a drunk." However, Soca Elvis, Big Rich and D'Hitman don't see it that way. As Soca Elvis put it, "It's all a story. We just telling a story," he said. "This is what goes on in our society. The liquor is there."