DANCEHALL NICE AGAIN

there is clear animosity between Mavado, who has had a meteoric rise to fame this year on the heels of an armada of hit songs, and one of dancehall’s greatest icons. One of those Mavado songs is the ‘Full Clip’ combination with Busy Signal which has a highly provocative line which reads: ‘come hype pon we wid a gal weh we dun out…’.

Interestingly, Beenie Man did not respond in kind until after his brother, Brian Smith’s death at the hands of gunmen in mid-October. Sources say he took umbrage with the ‘baby Brian’ reference in one of Mavado’s songs which seemed to presage Brian Smith’s death.

In a song simply called the Jamaican curse word, ‘B—c—th’, Beenie Man comes out blazing, singing that he is a ‘foundation bad man’ from ‘nineteen oh-long’.
A snippet of the lyrics goes:

Hey you, mek mi tell yu dis b—c—t
New 9 mm fi swell up yu b-c—t
‘Gangster For Life’, bad oonu b—c—t
War Oonu want, well, mi ready fi thump it off

Mavado, gwaan sing and low big man ting
Mek Bounty gwaan mad ’cause Angel leave him

Beenie Man also has another song where he threatens to leave ‘Cassava’ ‘inna piece, an overt reference to Mavado’s hometown, a garrison community called Cassava Piece in St. Andrew.
Mavado, whose street credibility is at all-time high in the run up to the annual Sting show, responds on a song where he claims ’some bwoy just chat too much’, and gives a reason ‘why marrow paste pon ceiling inna middle evening’.

Talk which piece over Cassava?
Waan run outta the place like Asafa
Lass, knife, me yu a chop offa?
Yu body, get yu dutty head chop offa

What will happen between the two at this year’s Sting 2006 remains to be seen. But given all the hostilities and shifting alliances in dancehall today, it is clear there will be a multi-dimensional conflict which will be fought on a number of fronts at this year end battleground concert, Sting 2006.