ENTITY · PERSON
Count Lasher
Well supported
One of the mento singers who recorded through the 1950s, in the wave of Jamaican records made just before ska. His songs work the way mento does — topical, funny and pointed about hard circumstances — and belong to the period when Jamaica was recording its own music commercially for the first time.
At a glance
- Type
- person →
- Confidence
- Well supported
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Debate & reception
How people argued about the music — praise, criticism and public debate. See all debate & reception →
debate
Mento or calypso? A question of Jamaican identity
A documented naming debate: mento was frequently marketed and referred to as 'calypso,' conflating it with the Trinidadian form; some framed this as harmless commercial shorthand, others as an erasure of mento's distinct Jamaican identity. Neutral framing; no verdict. Sources: Jamaica Gleaner archive; Rough Guide to Reggae.
Stance: mento's distinct Jamaican identity vs marketing it as Trinidadian calypso
debate
Mento's bawdy songs: rustic candour or colonial indecency?
Two documented positions on mento's sexual double-entendre, stated neutrally: defenders heard rural working-class humour and honest candour in the word-play, while respectable and colonial opinion condemned it as 'smutty' and low. Neutral framing; no verdict. Sources: Jamaica Gleaner archive; Carolyn Cooper, Noises in the Blood.
Stance: rural working-class humour and candour vs middle-class colonial indecency
