Benjai releases Ebola soca song
Saturday, October 18 2014 (T&T Newsday)
Benjai & Screws - No Ebola (2015 T&T Groovy Soca)
<![CDATA[<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/iff6VLbN9N0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/iff6VLbN9N0</a>]]>
As the country continues the debate on whether or not Carnival 2015 should be cancelled due to the Ebola outbreak, soca artiste Rodney “Benjai” Le Blanc has released a track titled, “No Ebola”, declaring in song the disease cannot stop, “the soca.”The three and a half minute song, written and performed by Benjai and fellow soca artiste Tichard “Screws” Barrington, was uploaded on video sharing site YouTube on Thursday and already received more than 25,000 views up to news time.
The chorus is, “No Ebola cyar stop no soca/no Ebola cyar stop no soca/gone all contagious and it infectious/first person infected in Texas.”
The bridge, which begins with the shout of “quarantine!”, encourages people to alternately, “jump up”, “wave” and “wine” with “yuh gas mask”, and ends with, “this one is the road march!” to the refrain, “doh bring that in Trinidad”.
Usage of a gas mask, however is not one of recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in the US as Ebola is not an air borne disease but transmitted through contact with blood and/or body fluids.
Screws also sings the refrain, “Who ready for de Ebola? Who ready for de Ebola? It cyar stop meh soca.” The song noted that, “we dealing” with HIV, Yellow Fever, Chikungunya, Malaria and to, “lock down the ports.”
On Thursday, Health Minister Dr Fuad Khan reported at the post-Cabinet media briefing that a travel ban had been imposed on persons from five African nations severely hit by the Ebola outbreak — Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Returning to the song, another verse comments on the symptoms of Ebola: “Their fever too high, blood run from deh eye, skin start falling off, hope dem find de cure, dey backbone hutting them, they only vomiting, they only hemorrhaging, don’t want it in meh country.” On YouTube the song had 101 “thumbs up” and 134 “thumbs down”, up to news time and had received mostly negative comments.
“This is SOOOO NOT FUNNY. Ebola is a serious matter and should not be taken lightly. We are not ready and no gas mas(k) can prevent u from getting it,” one commenter wrote.
“Yes, we can relax. But not on this issue. The song is spectacularly ill-timed, insensitive and displays a level of ignorance that is astounding. No craft here?” another commenter wrote.
Almost 4,500 people have been killed by Ebola in the recent outbreak.
Some other posters on the video, however, expressed support for Benjai describing the song as catchy, praising his “phenomenal” voice and agreeing that the Ebola threat cannot stop Carnival 2015.
“I don’t see nothing wrong with the song. He right Ebola can’t stop we soca; trini carnival 2015 must go on and dat meh say.
