Rapper Shanti Dope has slammed the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency for trying to ban his song “Amatz.”
“This is a brazen use of power and an affront to our right to think, write, create and talk freely about the state of the nation,” he said in his Facebook page.
The camp of Shanti Dope told PDEA director general Aaron Aquino that he should first listen to the song, instead of taking “a few lines out of context.”
“While anyone is welcome to interpret a song or any cultural text, it is also clear that for an interpretation to be valid, it needs to have basis, and must be within the context of the cultural text as a whole,” the rapper’s management said.
Shanti Dope’s camp, however, denied Aquino’s claim that the song “Amatz” was about drugs or marijuana, saying the music was about the song’s personal “fly.”
The “Amatz” music video was released last March.
The Concerned Artists of the Philippines yesterday said PDEA’s call to ban the song was “ridiculous.”
In a statement, the group said the song was “open to interpretation.”