“Jab take orders from nobody,” reigning Calypso Monarch Terri Lyons sings in her new single, Jab Order.
The song was released last month and sits on the Shell Man riddim out of Grenada. Lil Natty and Thunda with Things Nice (Woi), Happy Boy with Bad Jab, Bubbah 473 with Vieux Corp Creed and Mystyk with Jab Love are the other artistes on the riddim.
The riddim, according to the blurb on YouTube video, was recorded as part of Jambalasee Grenada’s live sound sampling for last year’s J’Ouvert.
It added that the shell pattern of the jab jab connected many to their ancestors and the music needed to maintain its purity.
“Musical sampling of its core elements is one such way we can archive this,” the caption read. And this is where the Shell Man riddim comes in.
Lyons said she was invited in June to be a part of the project and was sent three riddims. It was written during the pandemic when jab jab masqueraders were being told that they could not play because the country was under lockdown.
“And they still came out and jab,” Lyons said.
The National Carnival Commission (NCC) website says the jab molassie or molasses devil is one of the oldest forms of devil mas. Its players usually wear wings, horns, a wire tail and carries a pitchfork.
The players are also usually covered in a sticky black substance which was molasses in the old days.
“Its origins date back to days of the sugar estates, when freed slaves, who formerly toiled on the sugar estates, daubed themselves with the familiar and readily available molasses (a direct by-product of sugar cane) as a means of disguising themselves and playing a cheap mas. Today, the jab molassie has evolved to include blue devils, red, green, white, yellow and even jabs covered in mud, and chocolate syrup,” it said.
For Lyons, the mas carries the spirit of resistance which was demonstrated during the pandemic.
Several articles on Grenadian news site, nowgrenada.com have headlines which read, “Jab Jabs defy carnival cancellation for second year.”
The article’s lead said despite the Grenadian Parliament approving the cancellation of carnival last year hundreds of people from various communities defied that order and played in Jab Jab J’Ouvert celebrations.
Lyons said this was part of the jab culture which told people, “we are in turmoil; you have to listen to us.
“If you are not going to listen to us, we are going to find a way for you to listen. We are going to flock the streets and make sure you listen to us. No matter how we do it, you are going to listen to us.”
This was Jab Order’s inspiration, she said.
“Jab orders that you listen to them. If you don’t listen to them, they are going to come out on the street and make sure that you listen to them.
“Without bothering anybody, they would stomp their feet. Make rhythm with their feet and voices. That is what they did, it did not have any big truck,” she said.
Jambalasee Grenada MuZik produced the song and it was mixed by Clint “Deva” Abraham and Ian Charles.
The song’s caption says Lyons reps for