Basically, all Sean Paul’s been saying to the Jamaican government is “just gimme di light”.

The multiple Grammy Award-winning artiste has a vision for Jamaica which involves a particular area of Kingston becoming a music hub that will attract an ‘insane’ amount of visitors. Sean Paul is counting on the government to help bring to life Jamaica’s capital under the guise of Music Tourism. This in turn he said will generate money in the billions. However, we’re pleased to announce that since he discussed it in February 2021, the news is the Dynamite artiste has been seeing what he envisioned for his island making some realistic strides lately.

“While the endeavour calls for millions of dollars in investments incrementally, the Jamaica Tourist Board and the Tourism Enhancement Fund have already approved the start of the project in principle. The finer details of the plan and costing are still being worked out but the concept has already been approved for government funding and would be a private-public partnership.” the Jamaica Observer newspapers reported.

The development of Beat Street, which will be located at the corner of Charles and Orange streets, is anticipated to be a crowd-puller among tourists and is being packaged as the epicentre of a cultural tourism tour of downtown Kingston. This area was home to many in the pioneering stage of jamaica’s music industry. Record stores, bars, tenement yards were located there and legends of Jamaican popular music, including producers Leslie Kong, Bunny Lee, and Clement “Coxsone” Dodd, Prince Buster, Bob Marley, and the Wailers, Lee “Scratch” Perry, frequented these environs.

The concept of making Kingston a music Tourism city aligns with an already existing project of “Bringing back Kingston to its pride of prominence ” Since 2015, Kingston was designated a UNESCO Creative City of Music.  Julian “Jingles” Reynolds and his Sounds and Pressure Foundation team has been spearheading the redevelopment of the capital city and its prominence in Jamaica’s cultural history with a cultural heritage project which among other things involved the production of a documentary film: Respect due-mento, ska, rocksteady, reggae, dancehall – the story of Jamaican Music and the development of Beat Street.

Reynolds told Sunday Finance that, ”this latest development provides an opportunity for the business community generally, not just those operating in downtown Kingston, to get involved in the development of ‘the mecca of the Jamaican music industry’ at this early stage.”

He emphasized that “funding and policy are the crucial elements at this point,” arguing that “if the development is approached collectively as a public-private sector partnership, its magnitude disappears and the benefits will be widespread – not just for the players directly involved, but for the wider downtown community.”

 

Sources:

Jamaica Observer newspaper

https://www.dancehallmag.com

 

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