US-BASED executive record producer Michael “Beatbopper” Hudgins says while artistes need to be given avenues of expression, they should be responsible enough to not incite violence or laud negative behaviour.

His comment comes against Tuesday’s Broadcasting Commission ban on the playing of music that promotes or glorifies lottery scamming, the use of illicit drugs and illegal guns.

“These young artistes in Jamaica are definitely telling their stories — unemployment, and poverty and violence surrounding them. They are creating an avenue for people to listen to them so changes can take place in their lives. And others who live in similar conditions are going to listen to them. So let us get it right, we must not suppress the views of others, but we got to ensure our society is not degraded by the wrong type of lyrics,” he said.

“If I should go back to the US position, gangster rap started with those artistes who were telling stories of their lives as they see it…There were people all over the world who never knew what was happening…People who are unhappy really don’t care about happy music, and the violent lyrics are the ones which sometimes make them do ugly things,” Hudgins continued.

Executive director of the Broadcasting Commission Cordel Green said the ban was the end product of a wide- ranging process that included focused monitoring, decoding of sub-culture dialect, and urban slangs deliberation on balancing free expression.

Last year, Prime Minister Andrew Holness put dancehall music on the radar. He said violent lyrics from artistes assisted in fuelling the island’s crime rate.

“I agree with Prime Minister Holness that gun lyrics can influence people to do wrongs…We also have to look at the role of government and ask ourselves: ‘Is government doing enough?'” said Hudgins.

“Bob Marley is a great inspiration to people. He was certainly telling his stories. But, didn’t use poor choice words to get his message across. Bob wasn’t telling anyone to kill innocent people and because his music was so skilfully crafted, he is still the greatest reggae artiste,” he continued.

Hudgins is executive producer of albums Miungu Ya Muziki and Certified Gold. The former did well on several charts, including number one on the Cuba-Caribbean Amazon charts and number two on US iTunes.