by DONNA SEALY

IT'S THE WOMEN who are encouraging smutty lyrics in calypso, says reigning Pic-O-De-Crop Monarch David Kid Site Piggott.

He told the DAILY NATION in a telephone interview yesterday that generally they were the most vociferous at tents and the ones calling for encores.

"There is a little hypocrisy. You find that among the audience, the people who encourage it and cheer it on are usually the women.

"This has been the case over the last five years or so, and some of my colleagues argue ten," he said.

Piggott argued that the artistes, those who performed the songs with smutty lyrics,
were merely "conforming" to their target audience's demands.

"You will see young male artistes come on and wuk up bad. They are doing it for
their target audience – a female audience.

"That is something you see recently where you have males artistes stripping naked and wukking up. No man would go on stage and wuk up like that one time," added Piggott.

He was one of the panellists on Starcom Network's Brass Tacks Sunday which looked at smut in the music.

Sade Leon-Slinger, from the "Front Line Posse", a small groupof calypso enthusiasts
who travel from tent to tent interacting with calypsonians from the front row, responded to Piggott's initial comments which came during the programme.

She said it was true the majority of women behaved in this manner. However, her group had taken a stand against smutty lyrics and did not accept them or sexist jokes.

Asked if he thought the situation would change, Piggott said each generation was different and while this one encouraged it, the next one might be serious and intolerant.

While saying the females singers were "okay" although "some of them picked the
wrong songs", the monarch said he had a problem with them showing too much skin and using their sexuality.

"I have a problem with it and I [ask] them: 'Why do you have to use so much sexuality?' After a while it becomes boring with everybody seeing everybody like that. Why can't they try to look regal more like a queen and put over their message? Everybody sees flesh all the time; it is nothing special," he said.

donnasealy@nationnews.com