Fay Ellington cautions that lewd Hill and Gully lyrics dishonour Jamaica’s folk legacy

Veteran broadcaster and cultural commentator Fay Ellington is asking Jamaicans to examine more closely the music and messages circulating online and in dancehall spaces, singling out explicit material built on the popular Hill and Gully riddim as a particular worry.

Ellington said Jamaica’s folk foundations deserve honour rather than being turned into vehicles for graphic content. She credited producer Steven McGregor with skilfully reintroducing the traditional, folk-informed rhythm to present-day Jamaica, saying she had no quarrel with that creative step. At the same time, she labelled some lyrical choices disrespectful and excessively coarse.

In remarks carried in a CVM News report, she said: “Lord have mercy, the nastiness that some of the people decide to put lyrics on it have done.” She described that pattern as desecration, tying it to a wider failure to understand history and therefore one’s origins. Praising McGregor’s work as “genius” and “brilliance” for repositioning folk music for modern ears, she added: “But you g it with your nastiness.”

Ellington stressed that Jamaican folk song carries deep historical and cultural weight, and suggested many young listeners have not connected with those roots. She asked how many youths visit the Institute of Jamaica or attend performances by Jamaican folk singers, Carry Folk Singers or Hatfield Singers, insisting the material exists—including recordings online—if people make the effort to find it.

She also argued that constantly addressing women in degrading terms reflects poorly on both speaker and listener, noting that many women still patronise dances where such material dominates.

Beyond performers, Ellington called on politicians, corporate Jamaica, churches and educators to do more to advance positive cultural values. She posed a series of reflective questions about the kind of society Jamaica wishes to project, listing gun glorification, voyeuristic lyrics about women’s bodies and what she termed “gutter” content, and rejected the excuse that salacious material sells as a reason to normalise it.