Bounty Killer and Shabba Ranks trade jabs at each other after some recent comments about the lyrical content of young artists in the dancehall space.
Shabba Ranks has gotten on the bad side of Bounty Killer, who unleashed a barrage of insults at him for apparently shading the Warlord, who recently chided younger artists for “dunce” music and lyrics. Both artists, who are legends in dancehall, recently performed at the Jamrock Cruise, but it seems that something Bounty said set Shabba off.
While performing, Bounty Killer reportedly called out artists who were focusing on “dunceness” in music, warning that Jamaica was too influential in promoting unintelligence.
“Ah we a di strongest culture inna di worl’—wah likkke dot pon di map and everybody waan seh ‘bomboclxxt!’…weh a gwaan a bare dunceness, dats why some bwoy ah come sing some dutty, nasty foolishness,” he had said. “People haffi excellent and educated and smart. Boy seh if yuh waan hide tings from black people, put it in a book. Dat mean seh bwoy a celebrate seh they made us illiterate and dunce.”
Shabba Ranks later appeared to address the comments in an On Stage interview, telling Bounty to leave young artists alone.
“Mi hear some big man inna music now, weh every turn dem turn dem beat against di likkle yute dem,” Shabba said while telling elders in the Jamaican music space to allow younger artists to create their own style of music. “Give di yute dem a chance wid dem music. Di yute dem nuh haffi do di music like how we do di music.”
It seems that his statement touched a nerve with Bounty Killer despite not being named by Shabba. On Tuesday, Bounty Killer went on an extensive rant as he called Shabba an “old, lame, run away, back in di days guy.”
On Instagram, he spoke about his 30 years in the entertainment business and his career transforming while Shabba “ran away” from Jamaica.
“Di Gaadzilla, di messiah, di architect. Mi reinvent dis twice time 1992 and 2002 from Scare Dem to Alliance, so no little old lame run away back in di days guy cyaah size up one General. Nuh NPT (no p****y test) else a funeral. Dun chat to a dunce bat. Marshall and General 2002 St Bess 20yrs later and who’s greater,” he shared of himself and Wayne Marshall’s first performance years ago in St. Elizabeth.
Bounty Killer also recognized some dancehall veterans, but not surprisingly, Shabba Ranks was not named on his list.
“Take out unuh note pads Learn and adapt the formula. Ninjaman, Tiger, Professor Nuts, Papa San, to name a few: dem make stage show in Jamaica and mi revolutionize it. Is which show some p***y tek bout ya? Where and when? Post the clips them then mek we see. I never left this for 3 months since mi buss 92 mi carry this pon mi back NPT”, he said in another post.
In another post, he wrote, “Put bloodcl**t respect pon mi 30yrs of consecutive contributions and development to this culture and genre Sir Gaadzilla that’s the term the stalwart the pioneer, the innovator the inventor the general the coach the architech should I continue,” he wrote in reference to him deejaying at Reggae Sunsplash in the 1990s.
Meanwhile, Bounty Killer made it clear who he was speaking to as he responded to a fan that mentioned Jahshii’s infamous Entertainment Report interview, where he said artists like Shabba don’t help upcoming artists.
“Ask Jahshii. For one he will tell u exactly how the youths felt about some elders,” Bounty replied to the comment.
