The Warlord Bounty Killer has renewed his call for upcoming artistes to desist from falsely labeling songs which they record on Hip Hop beats, as Dancehall music.
Bounty Killer’s call comes following the recent sampling of Chacka Demus, and Pliers 1990’s international dancehall hit “Murder She Wrote” by American artiste Jason Derulo. The sampling comes amid local artistes and upcoming producers gravitating towards hip hop beats, a state of affairs which Bounty says is rapidly damaging the dancehall genre.
“Please to take note young musicians/producers/artiste in preserving our authentic musical art form. Bcuz ppl do y’all know how long ago the Bam-Bam Riddim came out? From in the mid-60s, I think; Toots Hibbert hit song and is being sampled today simply bcuz it still has its own identity,” the killer posted beneath a photo of the three artistes on IG earlier today.
“Not knocking nobody hustle, but I’m just saying the new era of dancehall music has no identity bcuz u cannot be playing soca and saying its house music so why are they playing hip hop/trap and calling it dancehall? It’s the new ting fine. But it’s not dancehall. Every music has a groove, tempo, pattern, and sound. Most riddims today has none of the above. Foreigners knows Jamaican music better than some of us bcuz we be listening too much trap crap and rap on BET/MTV. Unuh better go resort to YouTube and go learn the history, bcuz can anyone of these new riddims and the fine voice singjay up inna nose, nasal thing cross internationally? Talk to mi IG world?” he wrote before tagging producers Sly and Robbie and Chacka Demus and Pliers in the post.
Over the past few weeks, several producers and artistes, including Mr. Vegas, have spoken out about the inauthentic beats which artistes and producers are branding as Dancehall music.
In early August, veteran producer Danny Browne called on upcoming artistes and producers to back to the roots of dancehall, arguing that their actions were a blatant disregard of the genre and Jamaican culture and probably stemmed from the fact that the very same persons were unaware of the difference between dancehall, the music and a dancing hall which is a space where persons go to street dance.
“The genre is well known and accepted worldwide. Everybody from Drake, Rihanna, everybody who is doing the music internationally are aware that Dancehall music is a genre, except some of these young Jamaican producers and musicians and artistes,” Browne had lamented.
“This music that we call dancehall is making millions of US dollars for many people all over the world. We in Jamaica, continue to disrespect the Hip-Hop community by taking their music and calling it dancehall… Can you imagine some Rock and Roll newbie come about and decide say he is gonna play R&B but he’s gonna call it Rock and Roll? Would it make it Rock and Roll? Absolutely not. So I am saying, taking a Hip Hop beat and calling it dancehall doesn’t make it dancehall,” he stated.
“So I am saying to you stop calling what you’re making nowadays dancehall. It is not dancehall… call it something else,” he added.
