Romain Virgo's "Rich in Love"

A cute song with lyrics that cuts against the grains of the lacklustre filth that Jamaicans have come to accept as the art of music. Lyrics are a little too "pop" for my liking but it gets a passing grade in my book. Congrats Romain Virgo for once again putting out music that is a welcome deviation from the mediocrity Jamaicans are taking in on the airwaves.

The song apparently seems to be about a black "ghetto-dwelling" kid who has finally hit it big by getting a beautiful non-ghetto dwelling girl who apparently is well-to-do and even drives a cute yellow Mini Cooper. No easy feat for any average girl. He goes on to introduce her to his community by painting to her a picture of what any ghetto in Jamaica would be like and the cliches abound, the mackerel, dumpling and butter etc. She then reluctantly agrees to drop by, obviously after much vacillating and uncertainty and no doubt insisting on Romain's part. He doesn't fail to mention that "the war done" so apparently its safe for her to pay him a visit.

That said, we see this obviously non-dark long-haired "beauty" whom he serenades (as he is apparently good at doing). The ghetto folks seem to welcome her hallowed presence among them. Their is much merry-making and jollification as a result of her being there.

Isn't it interesting how we as Jamaicans (of 90% black descent) look at the colour of our skins and where we are from to use these factors to categorise and marginalise ourselves voluntarily. We are all one people and we are equal and nobody should be viewed in a lesser or greater light due to where we are from and especially our skin complexion. Each shade lighter a person is, each degree straighter and each millimeter longer our hair is (especially our women) pushes us up one notch on the scale of respect and self-worth in our society - it hurts! I'm sure (I hope) that Romain had nothing to do with the casting and the direction of the video. However, due to the fact that Jamaicans are oft prone to cutting corners, taking the easy way out and shy away from thinking outside the box, it was almost automatic that such a girl would have been chosen for the video and it would have been filmed in that setting. We can sometimes go against the grains and dare to be different the worst that can happen is failure and that has never killed anybody. But looking at it from another angle one will see the possibility of being looked at as an innovator. Be different think outside the box and don't fail to not cut corners. Then success is almost guaranteed as long as your approach is not half-assed and is based on at least basic talent.