“Full Extreme”, popularly called “We Jammin’ Still”, resonated with people and was a hit because it is a song about resilience and survival despite the challenges, according to the psychiatric and psychological experts. The band Ultimate Rejects featuring MX Prime won the 2017 Road March title with their smash hit “Full Extreme”, which ruled the stage, having been played a historic 556 times.
The Express yesterday spoke with professionals to find out just why the song affected the psyche of the people so much so that it dominated the roads as well as social networking sites.
Psychologist Daryl Joseph said the song is one of courage and triumph in the face of adversity. “Trinbagonians are very resilient people, we try our best to not get overwhelmed by the seriousness of any situation. We try to keep things to a degree of light-heartedness and that allows us to continue functioning. It’s a coping mechanism that we have that prevents us from shutting down and descending into absolute chaos and anarchy,” he said. Joseph said his understanding of the song is that Ultimate Rejects was able to tap into that part of us that sees and acknowledges the difficult things around us but at the same time we thrive and do not allow these things to overwhelm us or take away from the value of life. He said some people misunderstood the intent of the song and thought it was saying we should ignore everything going on around us but, on the contrary, it means that we are not going to roll over and play dead.
“That’s why this message was so well received and warmly accepted by the population, apart from the infectious music,” said Joseph. He also said the line of the song “hold them and wuk them” means that we should not sit back and take everything that is coming— recessions, crime, the economy etc— in essence it means to fight against these issues.
Fear of crime Psychologist Valini Pundit shared the view that the song was about resilience of the people.
“There is the positive aspect of the song that emphasises the resilience of our people, despite the challenges. It is not going to stop you being who you are,” she said.
Pundit said there is a paradox, in that the positive can speak to resilience and the negative about abandonment.
She said people are concerned with the issues plaguing society such as murders, missing people and rapes, adding that there is research to show that fear of crime contributes to lower mental health well-being of the people.
A free -up song Psychiatrist Dr Varma Deyalsingh said that the song would have had a powerful impact on the psyche of people because it speaks both to resilience and having a good time without a care in the world. “In a country where there is crime, poverty, social and economical issues, all of this occurring, a segment of the population is willing to have a level of wild abandonment and a don’t-care attitude and forget that reality exist for a few days,” he said. “It is also a sense of relief that no matter what happens, the fight will continue,” he added.
Psychiatrist Dr Yuchini Anyanwu said he personally enjoyed the song and danced to it and some may enjoy the lyrics while others were drawn to the rhythm.
“This is Carnival season, it is the song that made Road March and it is one which people enjoyed and allowed them to free up, be happy and enjoy themselves,” he said.