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This article is from the Ska FAQ, by Tomas Willis tomas@twillis.com with numerous contributions by
others.
1.7: What is a rude boy? (Ska)
A "rude boy" is not just an impolite male child. The street-cool
toughs of Kingston, Jamaica, dressed nattily in the latest and hep-est
threads were known as "rude boys" and they ruled the Kingstown dance
halls. (Read "rude" as "chill" or "dope" or, if you are older, "cool",
or if older still, "reet"). The term spread to the UK, and was revived
by second-wave ska fans in the UK.
Academic Caribbean historian Horace Campbell writes, in `Rasta and
Resistance':
Between 1964 and 1967 a subculture of angry youths developed in
the [Jamaican] society. Answering to the psuedonym "Rude Bwoy"
[sic] and searching for for avenues of self-expression and
recognition, these unemployed youths were quickly integrated into
the [ganga] export trade, many of them as enforcers.
... these young people created terror among working people, such
that they were feared by both citizens and police.
`[RAR, p. 111]' The [bracketed] comments are mine.
Referring to Desmond Dekker's `Rude Boy Train', `007', and other
songs describing rude boys, `Melody Maker' defined the term as "a sort
of cool super-hooligan.' [DD] Dekker sings:
Them a loot
Them a shoot
Then a wail
At Shanty Town
When rude boy deh 'pon probation
Then rude boy a bomb up the town.
`[DD]'
Obviously, rude boys are the people your mother warned you about.
For a cinematic example, check out Jimmy Cliff's portrayal of real-life
rude boy Ivanhoe Martin Rhygin in the film The Harder They Come (For
more information, see See .)
Laurence Cane-Honeysett wrote on:
From the summer of 1966, up until 1967, a whole series of records
referring to the exploits of so-called "Rude Boys" were released in
Jamaica. Almost every major artist on the island recorded material
featuring lyrics either condemning or defending the actions of the
young men who spread mayhem across the island. Some described the
Rude Boys as no more than glorified hooligans, who caused trouble
for trouble's sake, while others depicted them as heroes, akin to
the gangsters and cowboys featured in the popular films of the day.
To most, however, they were simply victims of the deprived social
conditions into which they were born and subsequently raised.
Whichever way one viewed them, the Rude Boys were an established
part of Jamaican life and had been around long before the glut of
releases which drew attention to there activities. The main reason
for the sudden interest was the explosion of violence during the
summer of 1966, undoubtedly agitated to a large degree by the
exceptionally hot weather. By October, following six deaths over
the preceding three months, the Jamaican government declared a
state of emergency and instructed the police and military to cordon
off the trouble zone in Kingston and enforce a 10pm to 6am curfew.
The fact that this period coincides with one of the major
transformations in Jamaican music is no coincidence.[sic] The heat
which had made tempers become frayed had also made dancing to Ska
an exhausting experience and it was a natural progression to slow
the tempo of the music. Eventually the rhythm slowed to such an
extent that it became a completely new sound - Ska had been
replaced by Rocksteady.
By early 1967, both the weather and tempers had cooled and the Rude
Boy theme became less frequent in song lyrics. Over the years that
followed, Rude Boys were rarely mentioned and despite the succes of
Perry Hanzell's film, `The Harder They Come', which starred Jimmy
Cliff as the doomed anti-hero, 'Ivanhoe Martin Rhygin', they
featured only occasionally in songs such as the Slicker's `Johnny
Too Bad'.
Towards the end of the seventies, British Ska bands such as The
Specials and Madness re-invented the image of the Rude Boy,
presenting him as a fun-loving young man, attired in a stylish
two-tone suit and a pork-pie hat, more akin to the Mods of the
sixties than [to] the original Jamaican version. The British Rude
Boy was not to last, however, and following the demise of the Ska
revival, he quickly vanished. Since then, Rude Boys seem to have
been all but forgotten outside Jamaica ... until now!
`[C25]'
Today, a "Rude Boy" or "Rude Girl" is a *dedicated* ska fan, with a
sense of history, style and the ska scene. A trendy poseur *cannot*
be rude.
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