Bounty Killer has attributed Dancehall music’s inability to re-dominate the global market to lack of creativity.
“Dancehall problem is the topics are limited. None of the choppa artists not bigger than Charly Blacks,” he says, explaining that “Party Animal” connects to a larger percent of fans in the world.
He also spoke about Skillibeng’s “Whap Whap,” which is one of his more successful songs because of the catchy hook rather than complex lyrics.
“The topic is stupid. We need to look in the world and choose a topic fi suit we and dem [fans],” Bounty Killer said, adding that content targeting Jamaicans only goes as far as the diaspora.
The artist also added that nobody knows about “choppa,” but the people who do know it as a “scam,” and nobody is celebrating scamming, a criminal offense. That’s the same for the “Sciance” and “Obeah” topics prominent in Dancehall now.
“We want songs with universal topics and relatable, household topics where every household understands and relates to. Nothing nuh wrong with dancehall, just the feel, the music and the topics not right,” he said. “Dancehall is international now you know. This is not 1996/1998 when we are fighting to get it on the international scene. It’s out there now. Every nation knows Dancehall music.”
Meanwhile, Bounty Killer, who is the victim of a one-sided clash with Mr. Vegas, also spoke about the way Afrobeat artists lived compared to Jamaican artists.
“Afrobeat artists don’t fight each other. They have no beef, no pasta. All they have is music and unity. Everybody ah Africa link. Dancehall have too much segregation and too much conflicts, those are some of the things we need to get rid of,” he said.
Bounty Killer says that artists also are focused more on their egos and don’t do much for the music or the people and would like to see the selfish culture change.
He did, however, agree that efforts like Shaggy and Sharon Burke’s Island Music Conference held in January offer help to upcoming artists. However, he says more needs to be done by the Culture Ministry to foster growth in the industry.
