Teino Evans and Krista Henry, Staff Reporters

Left: Busy Signal   Right: Craig 'Left Side' Parkes sometimes slips into the 'Dr. Evil' character. Elephant Man. - file photos

Local sounds are faking artistes' voices and selling the dubs for their own benefit.

The practise of cutting and dubbing another person's voice over a recording done by an artiste is called splicing and according to some artistes, this is a big problem often worthy of bigger fights.

COMMON PRACTICE

The practice has been common in the music business affecting artistes for years, causing them to lose monetarily and showing them in a bad light. but now some artistes are doing a bit more than speaking about it.

Dubs, which start from $20,000, can go up to $150,000. With splicing, the artiste never sees any of that money because someone else's voice is used to cut into the song to make it sound like a dub without the artiste's knowledge.

The spliced dub is then sold and the person who splices the record collects the money.

It is this practice that allegedly prompted Mavado's recent run-in with the law.

The deejay was taken into police custody for allegedly assaulting a selector from Exodus studio when they met at a dance along Manning's Hill Road, for splicing his songs.

Mavado says, "a dem ting deh Exodus dem a do an dem know. Dem have a Mavado, Busy, Killa people weh sound like wi. but a hurt dem a hurt artiste career, like dem waan tek artiste fi fool. A betta dem come to di artiste an seh yea, cause every man haffi eat a food but a how yuh do it."

CAREER DAMAGE

Besides the monetary loss, according to Mavado, splicing can actually do more harm than good for an artiste's career.

"It hurt di artiste cause di song dem nuh sound good suh, an dem a sen it guh Japan an dem place deh. Mi have proof, cause di Japanese dem nuh approach mi wah day an seh a di same dread bwoy (from Exodus), an Japanese nuh tell lie pon music," Mavado said.

Mavado also pointed out that, "It (splicing) a happen from wah day to me, but me a nuh di first artiste weh dis a happen to, an dem (Exodus) a nuh di first fi a splice."

However, the owner of Exodus Sound and Studio, Ernest Braithwaite (Fadda Romeo), says this is not the case.

"A me own di sound an my son own di studio, an my studio cyan splice nutt'n. we a analog studio, we cyan splice tune. a protools studio do dem ting deh. But there is a problem between my nephew Kerry an Mavado. Kerry a one a di engineer down my studio an Mavado an him cronies jump him a one dance a seh him splice him tune, but my nephew seh him neva splice nuh tune. Dem chop him up inna him face an him get seven stitches. I was in New York when di whole ting happen. up to now dem (Mavado) cyan bring di song come prove to wi seh, 'here is what him splice.'

NOTHING NEW

However, he says this latest reaction to accusations of splicing is something new to music. "Look pon Bounty Killa. man a splice Bounty Killa fi years an him neva rush nobody yet. him whole a reason wid dem, cause him know who a do it, but him just tell dem seh a betta dem come check him, but dem man yah deal wid di ting different," Braithwaite said.

Busy Signal, another deejay on the rise, says he too has been affected by acts of splicing, but says as artistes, they have to stand up for their rights.

"All a wi, it affect all artiste, cause di likkle fake Busy dem an fake artiste, a mostly foreigners dem sell. A man jus big up some sound an mek him voice sound like me an den dem splice in di real me, so at di end a di day, di foreigners nuh really know di real me, suh is like dem come to wi an seh, Busy yuh memba seh yuh voice fi mi di odda day," Busy said.

ELEPHANT'S A VICTIM

Another artiste, Elephant Man, has also been a victim of splicing with songs such as Pon Di River and Signal Di Plane. However he has a different take on the outcome. "It doesn't hurt your career but its disrespectful cause dem can't even call you and tell you dem doing it," Elephant Man said.

Yet with so many artistes willing to lend their signature voices to songs and dubs, sounds are still making use of technology to create dubs. Esco who has not really experienced splicing in his career explains that availability may be a key reason for selectors resorting to spilcing. He says, "we're pretty available to people. It usually happens to artistes who can't be reached or accessible to the public". However he maintains that its not right to splice.

Despite being an illegal practice many artistes are unsure as to whether any action will be taken against it by government. "There should be a way to stop them so they don't just do as they like. When you want to do your stuff it don't mek it cause these people do it already and dem don't know the trouble it tek me fi do it," Ele said.

However, like many other artistes, Busy Signal says, "Di law inna Jamaica nuh really business wid dem ting deh suh we (the artistes) just get a hold a dem an sort it out our own way."