[Lion of the Tribe]

I have been listening to German reggae artist "Gentleman" for a few years now and I am really still undecided whether I like him or not.

His band, (The Far East Band) is brilliant but what is your opinion as "Gentleman" as a reggae superstar. I'm curious as to what other reggae musicians / producers feel about him.

[alionsonny]

That's a real old topic, Dave. Think we had discussions about Gentleman a looong time ago on the good ole V.

Hmm, Gentleman... His Patwa is I think mostly perfect, the sound of the Fareast Band is pure fyah. Still there's something, and I can't put my finger on it, I don't like about Gentleman. I think it has somehow to do with his attitude.

You know that I am no fan of the "Humbleness Mania", as an artist in my opinion must promote and make noise to be recognized in this small overcrowded world. But somehow the style of how Gentleman presents himself makes me not like this man REALLY. The picture you attached somehow shows exactly the attitude I don't like about that guy.

About his singing- / chattingstyle? Hmm, the only thing worth mentioning at Gentleman music is the Fareast Band to me. I find Gentleman's vocal skills quite boring. There's nothing I haven't eared many many times by other Reggae-Vocalists. Sometimes he has some good lyrics, but then again those lyrics show a bit of Bonoism (named by me after the U2 singer Bono). Bonoism is that kind of lyrics that allways say "WE are the xyz and WE must do zyx". Bonoism is brought to life by people who live in relative wealth and what makes it ugly is, that the Bonoists allways talk about, what those who are not wealthy should do. Bonoism is widely accepted and appreciated in germany, german music, german movies etc. pp. as the germans love to "hug the struggelers" to get past their WW2-Trauma

There's this "I got pain in my ass"-voicestyle that goes thru all Gentleman songs. I got to know that some people try to immitate Bob Marleys voice (!!!) by singing like somebody kicked in heir ballz and they want to avoid to scream. Generally the guy more or less successfully tries to immitate "the best of Reggae". To me it will ever come like an immitation.

Listen to some Hans Soellne once you get the chance. This guy is real.

[IRISH MOSS]

Can't really comment here. I know of a lot of people who love this cat. It's good to see his success.

I can't say much cuz I honestly don't know one of his songs and out of 38000 songs on my player I cannot find one. Guess I'm off the jury.

[i_rebel]

Gentleman is a great guy,a good brother!He worked himself up from the small clubs to the big festival stages!The reason why many don´t like him is that he´s successfull and they aren´t.But he really deserves the success!Lovely positive person,hard working man....& a loving daddy!If you don´t like his music,that depends on personal taste,but as an artist and performer,one got to pay respect to the man.
Bless Up!

[alionsonny]

Dirk, dunno what the musical abilities of Gentleman have to do with him being a father of a child. I don't feel I'm making bad music because I have no and I want no kids

[blaminack]

Alionsonny, he was talking about one of the many reasons why to have respect for the guy. Dirk said he was a loving daddy. That is not the same as being a father.

I was speaking to a sister from Jamaica that had only been in the US a week or so, and she asked me if I had heard of Gentleman. I said yeah, did you know he was married to a Jamaican lady? To which she replied, he could have married me... that would be cool. LOL

I think the guy has broken through to a level of acceptance and respect among Jamaicans that few have attained. I think that is a good thing for all non-Jamaicans involved in Reggae music.

[i_rebel]

Originally Posted by Lion of the Tribe

what is your opinion as "Gentleman" as a reggae superstar. I'm curious as to what other reggae musicians / producers feel about him.

Just tried to answer the topic.....

[alionsonny]

How loving a daddy is, you can only know, if you spoke to his children. We were 4 brothers at my parents house. Everybody who saw my family from the outside, must have thought that my dad was a loving daddy. ... my first hospital stay -> age of 7 -> when he was drunk he kicked me down a staircase. So far for this.

The only things I read from you guys all the time is "that he made it", "he is on a level", "he broke thru"... etc. etc.

With all respect, this makes me think, that most of the respect you have for gentleman is, because he got a record deal and good distribution.

Dirk even says, that people don't like Gentleman because he is so successfull. So questioning Gentleman means automatically that one must be jealous or so? I know many non-musicians (black and white ones) who cannot stand Gentleman. So they are TOO jealous? Yeah man, everybody who criticizes Gentlemans attitude and/or music is just jealous, because Gentleman is a Superstar. SURPRISE: Outside the rather small group off reggaefreaks (and only those who deal with dancehall) in germany, nobody knows gentleman. If I go out in the streets of my little "ghetto", it will take me some time until I meet somebody who knows him. So, Gentleman is just a genre-star, nothing to be really jealous of.

Somehow I think that people who bring that "you are jealous of his success"-sentence try to extend their own thinking pon others. I for myself am jealous of noone, because there's nobody in the world I would exchange my life with.

[alionsonny]

Nobody can answer this topic as none of us has superior knowledge about all. We can just discuss this question and that's what I am doing

A discussion still consists of multiple opinions

EDIT: I must emphasize here, that material wealth, "to make it" etc. pp. is none of my main goals. Please, if you see it as the biggest thing in life "to make it", leave me out of this game as I never got the rules of it and even dont want to get them.

[blaminack]

Sonny I agree FULLY with your saying that he is a genre star. You should patent that phrase. Well spoken. There are no superstars in this realm. Not until you include Dancehall and add Sean Paul.

Well there seems to really be a couple angles that we need to look at... success. Acceptance in the genre. (these first two are matters of legitimacy) And then whether our personal tastes allow his music in.

I listened to all of his albums several times and will say that his music, lyrics and voice are a bit cliche' for me. However, I honestly would rather listen to him over Capleton or Sizzla, any day. Mainly because the guy can at least hold a note.

What about Elan? His greatest acceptance AND rejection comes from how much he sounds like Bob Marley when signing with the Wailers... related I think. Is race and nation of origin what we are really talking about here? I think so and it only thinly veiled. Have we as reggae artists come to expect a certain stereotype?