Bounty Killer says he regrets some past violent lyrics, but is making it clear he is still the same Rodney Price we’ve known and love over the years.
Veteran dancehall artiste Bounty Killer is known as the Warlord for a reason. His dominance in the 90s and into the 2000s stemmed from his intoxicatingly violent lyrics that fans sang word for word. Now, as he gets older, he is expressing regret for some of those lyrics as he begins to probably see a correlation between violent music and violence in some aspects of Jamaican culture.
After donating 40 tablets to the Seaview Primary School on April 16, he spoke with reporters and explained that he is now more mature and understands the effect that lyrics can have on some fans.
“One of my mistake was to sing seh ‘murder informa, and mi gun nuh join lodge’ and all these things. But I’m growing and I’m learning from that, that’s why I even do a ad recently with the Crime Stop. Those are the initiatives we’re doing right now to establish which side we are on and what way we are going, ” he said.
The Crime Stop initiative focuses on educating the public on how they can go about informing the authorities about illicit activity in an effort to curb crime. In the new ad, fellow dancehall artists including Sevana and Agent Sasco appeal to Jamaicans to ‘Take a Stand’ against the crime challenge. Social media influencer Prince Pine is also associated with the campaign.
The “Fed Up” singer also explained that he made mistakes in the past and is trying to do what he can to make up for it now.
“I do regret actions of the past, but it is development. The mistake that you make is just learn you must learn from them and don’t make them again but it’s not a problem to make mistake, the problem is to not learning from them,”: he added.
It’s a bit of a turnaround for him as he was one of those who took strong objection to PM Andrew Holness’s recent comments that dancehall was a significant contributor to the prevalence of violence in Jamaican society. Even though he’s not completely agreeing with the PM’s take on the matter, he has admitted to some extent that there is some impact from violent lyrics.
“I’m a different man, I’m a different age, I’m not at the same stage. But I’m still Rodney, I’m still the person who was born on the 12 of June 1972, so I don’t think a person can change, but I’m surely rearranged, I’m stepping different, and I’m seeing thing different, and I’m going about thing different,” he added.
Queen of Dancehall Spice left a comment on the video posted by The Star on IG saying, “I don’t know how much time I’m gonna say this but I just love this man so much #OneGeneral.”
