Attaining street credibility for the average artiste is a lyrical battle that many labour over.

In the dancehall, one's area code can make or break an artiste, as uptown artistes, especially, may find it difficult to make it initially in the streets.

In the beginning persons like Don Yute and Supercat broke the barrier, leading 'uptowners' into the business. But it was the likes of Sean Paul that infiltrated and made the big breakthrough in the dancehall market.

Since then, the number of uptown dancehall artistes hitting it big include Damian Marley, Brick and Lace and Tami Chynn, who is enjoying success from her collaboration with Akon called Frozen. Also dipping into the pot is Cezar, Alaine, Wayne Marshall, Leftside, Ce'Cile, Tessane Chin and others.

Yet, there is still the struggle of being accepted in the downtown garrison areas as hardcore dancehall artistes. Up-and-coming artiste and producer Serani captures that struggle well in his recent song Not A Bad Man. As Serani sings, "I'm not a bad man, I'm not evil, I neva buss gun and kill people...I'm not from Garden, Rema or Jungle, yuh neva hear mi seh mi kill inna bungle...mi is just a likkle uptown yute a hustle..mi love di ghetto yo mi should born there..mi life nuh easy mi shed so many tears."

'garrison' heart

For Serani, the song speaks to his reality of being uptown but with a 'garrison' heart. To Serani, being uptown in the dancehall has not been fully accepted by the dancehall community. "Nuff people don't know I'm not from the ghetto, I'm not really into uptown stuck-up people, which a lot of uptown people tend to be. There are lots of things I love 'bout garrison people - dem roots and I'm a roots person," he said.

While not being from the garrison can have its drawbacks in the music business, it can be helpful as well. Serani portrays himself to be a chameleon who can adapt to any social situation. His writing style reflects his upbringing but his subject matter in Mama Still Hungry, Doh and others, reflect his knowledge of the downtown world. For Serani, he believes he performs 'harder' in garrison situations than in the uptown settings.

hardcore

He said, "I could go much harder in terms of what I say, much much more hardcore, but that's not the image I wanna portray. I want to be seen as a decent yute, who has been through his struggles, dat a help nuff yute."

VJ, deejay and selector, Supa Hype has never shied away from announcing his uptown roots to the industry as seen in his tongue-in-cheek parodies such as Welcome to Norbrook, based on Junior Gong's hit Welcome to Jamrock, and Uptown Story, from Cham's Ghetto Story. In Uptown Story, Supa Hype recounts an entirely different life from the garrison experience, 'Mi grow up inna Norbrook, Cherry Garden, Stony Hill, Constant Spring, Beverley Hills ... This is a real uptown story, mi house have five stories ... I remember satellite dish before cable buss; every top movie a mi a watch dem fuss.'

Supa Hype endorses the 'uptown' or 'UPT', as he explained to THE STAR, "years of living uptown is like the uptown neva exist in dancehall. As a uptown yute, no one used to big up uptown. If yuh nah seh Rema and Garden yuh nah seh nut'n, what happen to where mi live? So I gotta represent where I come from."

According to Supa Hype after the release of Uptown Story he got a lot of respect in the garrison yet it was still difficult for him to breakthrough in the dancehall. "Nuff time mi feel like people a fight mi in terms of mi production and ting. My songs playing on radio, but not much in the garrison. People seh Supa Hype rich, uptown him nuh have no need for dis," Supa Hype said. One drawback in the comedic approach for this artiste is that he claims its hard for people to accept him as a serious artiste who does 'real' songs other than parodies.