Caribbean Buzz
Billboard Snubs Dancehall. Jamaicans Are Not Having It.
Published
4 years agoon
By
EBUZZTTSwizz Beatz has since said that he doesn’t want the current controversy surrounding the Billboard cover art reporting on the ‘Verzuz Effect’, to cloud the fact that to date, dancehall legends Bounty Killer and Beenie Man have delivered one of the best clashes the online show has seen.
Speaking with the Jamaica Gleaner, he said the clash was far too iconic to be marred by Billboard’s clear misrepresentation. “Sometimes I wish we were able to see things before they come out. Not to critique journalism or critique the person that’s doing the write-up, but to actually help them because sometimes a person isn’t really tapped into the culture like that. If we were able to see the cover we woulda told them real quick that ‘hey, no disrespect to such and such but Bounty and Beenie gotta be there’. These two legends who are like brothers to me helped to change the face of the Verzuz battle, and so without a doubt, their faces deserved to be there.”
He explained that he did not want the world to think that the Verzuz fraternity was in any way involved in Billboard’s misstep and that was why they attempted to “redo” the cover art in their own way. “The pride of the town is something that has always been a big deal with Jamaicans. Me and Tim are powerful guys but people feel like we had control over that (Billboard cover) and I am a little bit shocked at that. We want people to know that we wouldn’t overlook (Beenie Man and Bounty Killer) like that, no way we would,” he said to the Gleaner.
Meanwhile, Naima Cochrane, the journalist who wrote the feature has since distanced herself from the corntroversy saying that she had no part to play in the creation of the cover art. “I did not have any input in the cover nor did I see it- writers rarely do, if ever do. I saw it today when the rest of the world saw it,” she said in response to someone online.
Beenie Man, one of the artistes caught in the middle of the firestorm, has since said this is what the dancehall genre faces. “Everybody fwd and tek piece and build up dem thing and then do everything to undermine the genre DANCEHALL where they got it from.” The artiste dubbed ‘The King of the Dancehall” argued that no matter the hard work, no matter how powerful the music is, “them still try it every time them get a chance.”