Bounty Killer bats for authentic dancehall sound as he gets ready to release his new album, King Of Kingston.
Dancehall is in need of an overhaul if it is to survive the global stage. This is the belief of Bounty Killer, who has issued a call for the players in the genre to give some thoughts on how it can be rejuvenated.
Killer expressed his views on the modern state of dancehall during an interview with the Jamaica Star following the official signing party following his new publishing deal with Creative Titans/Concord Music Publishing.
The veteran artist is getting ready to drop his highly anticipated album, King of Kingston, soon. It will be his first studio album in 18 years. Giving his expert opinion, he added that dancehall is lacking focus at the moment and no longer comes across as real.
Bounty added: “A baay crazy foolishness people doing. Nobody not doing the real, authentic dancehall.” Ever confident, as always, the Grungunzilla added that he believed his album could prove to be a useful template as to how dancehall can regain its former glory.
His opinion does not take away from the fact that he still believes that Jamaican music is great, but he believes the genre is stagnant at the moment. One of the problems is that some artists are not following the lead that their predecessors left. This is contributing to what he thinks is a lack of authenticity in dancehall.
That problem is even more highlighted when artists borrow elements of other genres as they try to create a new sound. Many times the new sound is not true to the heart of Jamaican music, he continued.
“We playing all kinda crazy things and calling it some new things, and we don’t want nothing new. Reggae and dancehall, that’s our soul. So, we’re going to redirect, realign and recharge dancehall with the King of Kingston, so prepare for thine Kingdom to come,” he added.
Bounty Killer’s former rival turn best friend, Beenie Man, recently expressed similar sentiments about dancehall’s direction while being interviewed on the Zeze Millz Show.
“Nuff a the young yute dem wid the rapping and ray ray but all a dem grow up on Reggae/ Dancehall music. Mi can tell you say all a di young yute now inna the UK can tell you how Beenie Man career start,” he said.
Bounty Killer’s drive to help rejuvenate the unique music of Jamaica is one of the reasons that he’s spent so much time and effort on his upcoming album. He’s previously said that the album is about 99 percent finished.
The dancehall legend revealed that there will be bits and pieces of music from around the globe, but the album remains true to dancehall. The “Benz and Bimma” singer also shared the long list of high name features that can be expected on the album, including artists like Busy Signal, the veteran Barrington Levy, Vybz Kartel, Bling Dawg, Chronixx, Busta Rhymes, and Snoop Dogg, to name a few. According to him, you can “just expect all bombs.”
Bounty Killer added he has no expectations for this album but just knows that he’s put in the work to make it a great one.
“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,” he said.
For him, sales should always take a back seat when it comes to putting out good music for the fans and what he really wants to see is “how people gravitate to it, how long people talk about the project, and how much people remember it.”
