Talk:Dennis Brown/Archive 1

message: So, User:SqueakBox, I was glad to see you added the info about Dennis & his coke use & succumbing to AIDS. I wanted to add it when I first read this article, but I knew that people would cut it out and I was surprised to see that I could not find any other sources. I was supposed to DJ with him at the UCLA Jazz/reggae festival a few days before he passed. He was a no-show, and all we were told was that his visa had been denied when trying to leave South America. Now, it is not usually a surprise when a reggae musician misses a show, but I was very surprised at how seriously Freddie McGregor and the other artists reacted. I had long heard rumors that he was HIV positive, but within Jamaicen reggae cirlces it was quite well known as fact—it always came with acknowledgements for his wife who stayed with him through out. As far as his coke use, unfortunately many successful reggae artists went that route during the 80's, and although he was not known as the heaviest user he was certainly known as a user. I do not think that he was a crack cocaine user, as that method of cocaine use did not really infiltrate the reggae world as much as powder and freebase, nor do I think that it quid pro quo led to his HIV status (certainly most of his peers who were using still live, and many still tour!). I do, however, think that this is important information to acknowledge in the article. And I am aware that what I just typed is "original research," but I think that often wikipedia's reliance on citations leaves articles in areas traditionally ignored by academics somewhat lacking (sadly, this is most noticeable in articles that involve people of African descent or other products of the African diaspora). Reggaedelgado 07:14, 1 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I had no idea about his alleged coke use until it came up at work yesterday when Dennis Brown came across our desktops  and my colleague (whom I find reliable and who lived for years in California) suddenly mentioned that Brown had been a crack addict, that he was definitely a smoker rather than a user of powder, and that my colleague had met him when Brown was in California, which is how he had himself found all this out. Obviously this kind of original research has no place in wikipedia but it got me searching, and when I discovered sourceable material confirming this I had no hesitation in using it. My colleague confirmed that rumours abound that Gregory Isaacs and other Jamaican reggae artists were also using coke but that Dennis Brown was the person he had seen in the flesh. I aded some stuff at Culture (band) and Joseph Hill as well, and Hill, one of the very few to confront this issue, echoed my own feelings that cocaine/crack is ruining our peace of mind as individuals and societies. Wikipedia's insistence on citations is indeed an inherent systemic bias in favoutr of literate societies which biases against third world societies amongst others, and as I am very much rooted here in the Third World right now this type of systemic bias is an issue of concern in my work here. Que le vaya bien amigo, SqueakBox 16:36, 1 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: crown price, coke & aids

message: Is this enough? SqueakBox 21:59, 8 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Based on the reliable sources it appears to be well known that he was an addict. However his cause of death does not appear to be so well known. I've re-written the sentence to relfect what the sources say. Thanks for finding them. -Will Beback 22:21, 8 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Sourcing