Bounty Killer insists that he is not worried about album sales, he just want to put out his best body of work.
Dancehall legend Bounty Killer is gearing up to release his latest album, but according to the deejay, he is not concerned about how well the project will sell. Killer says he is more concerned with the longevity of his music, which he believes more recent dancehall projects have not brought to the table.
Bounty Killer’s forthcoming album, King Of Kingston, is set to feature several collaborations from a wide cross-section of local entertainers, both young and old. He believes it’s the effort that he puts into his projects that has led to him securing multiple Grammy nominations, a Grammy win, and nearly a 3-decade long domination of the genre.
“When I drop albums, I don’t do expectations because that’s not a good thing. When yuh expect things, and it doesn’t work, yuh disappointed. I know that I am making a good project, so I am expecting people should like it, and that’s all,” Bounty said while explaining that in an age when charting and numbers seem to be the order of the day, he is not paying attention to the noise of the market.
“I don’t know what sale it’s gonna get because I am not making music for just the sales. I am making music for the details. I want to see how people gravitate to it, how long people talk about the project and how much people remember it.”
Bounty’s last studio album Ghetto Dictionary is almost 2 decades old however, the general boasts that people are still in love with his older material. He has been touting the greatness of his upcoming album for several months, shading the likes of Alkaline and other new school acts in the process.
Bounty Killer doubles down on this stance in his interview with The Star while explaining what it takes to make a hit.
“Most times, an album that does good nuh must be the best album. It’s the marketing that [the] project gets that make it stand out. A lot of the songs yuh see hit, it nuh mean a di best thing weh come out at the time, but it just reach a better stage because it get better marketing or come out at a better time,” the Killer said.
The Vendetta leader has been keeping his fans entertained with his sophomore album Top Prize. The project is the highest-selling dancehall album released this year, topping first week sales recorded by fellow dancehall entertainer Spice who comes in at second. Alkaline’s loyal fanbase ensured his project held the number 2 spot on Billboard’s Reggae Album Chart, second to Bob Marley’s evergreen body of work.
Still, the Warlord’s decorated catalog compromises several hit albums topping Billboard charts since the early 90s.
It’s now a question of what makes a great album. Is it the overall sale of the project or the album’s longevity? Let us know below.
