Over the years, some of the biggest acts in dancehall music including Buju Banton have recorded songs encouraging safe-sex practices by Jamaicans, especially young people. Singjay Azee, alarmed at the high rate of HIV in his country, called on four colleagues to help spread his safety-first message in ‘Can’t Tell’.
That single also features Mr Lexx, DYCR, Power Man and Junior Cat. It is released on the ‘Sweet Lyfe ‘riddim’ which Azee co-produced with his brother, Ansel Owen, for the Crown International label.
“Why I do this song is because I know five people who died from it (HIV), two of them in the music industry. The message is to open the eyes of the people in the world because HIV is still around and anyone can catch it,” said Azee.
In November 2022, Dr. Richard Amenyah, regional director of the United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, disclosed that over 30,000 persons in Jamaica were living with HIV. That startling statistic is even more dire, Amenyah noted, because there are “close to 27 Jamaicans becoming infected” every week.
New York-based Azee and his brother recently revived the Sweet Lyfe beat, which was first released in 2016 as a compilation album featuring songs by Sizzla, Half Pint and Gyptian.