Veteran selector Ricky Trooper and Dancehall star Spragga Benz are among the industry figures pushing back against the Jamaica Music Society (JAMMS) and its latest move to clamp down on illegal events.

JAMMS’ initiative targets promoters who fail to obtain proper copyright permits for the public use of recorded music — a legal requirement in Jamaica since 2007.

A clearly upset Ricky Trooper took to Instagram, sharing a screenshot of a headline about JAMMS’ mission, and slammed the organization in the caption:

“A what happened to dem people yah? A how much more money dem want to rob from poor people and the industry? Dem done a kill dance and party with state of emergency and dem ZOSO already – and dem robbers yah still want more — and dem naw give back to the industry too. Dem fi come dung now, set a (bleep).”

Meanwhile, Spragga Benz, also displeased with the crackdown, publicly declared that all sounds in Jamaica have his permission to play his music without compensation to any collecting agency outside of his own publishing company:

“For the rest of this year — and renewable automatically annually unless publicly terminated by me — I give every sound in Jamaica permission to play my music without compensation to any collecting body outside Redsquare Productions Publishing Co.”

According to JAMMS, the primary goal of the enforcement is to ensure that music rights holders, including producers and performers, are fairly compensated for the public use of their work.