Bounty Killer - he calls himself the poor people’s defender, and for sure the man fans call “the warlord” is one of dancehall music’s living legends. But for all of his 15 years at or near the top of the fierce dancehall scene, he has never been to Belize. That changed today when he arrived from Miami. We met him at the Princess Hotel this evening and he told Keith Swift why there is a difference between singing about violence and promoting violence.
Bounty Killer,
“Well you can expect the expected and the unexpected. As you’ve been hearing about Bounty over the years so you know what to expect but there’ll be more. Whatever the people bring out, that’s what we give back. If they give that energy, we deliver.”
Keith Swift,
You’re a veteran, you’ve been around a while.
Bounty Killer,
“Don’t call me a veteran because they make it seem like veterans are old people. I wouldn’t want to say I am an icon. I am a young legend.”
Keith Swift,
Where do you draw your inspiration from and what is your motivation?
Bounty Killer,
“Well my music it speaks of the happening and the actions of people. So if it ends up sounding violent, I guess violent actions have been taken and its violence being demonstrated back to the people. But everything I sing and what I go through and what I experience and what I see around me. So if it is aggressive it means, effective no-nonsense and I tell it like it is, not like it be, and ‘poor people fed up,’ ‘look into my eyes,’ ‘down into the ghetto’ – people call those songs aggressive but the struggle we go through is aggressive. So if you going to talk about what you go through, it is going to sound aggressive but that’s the life we live.”
Keith Swift,
So you don’t promote violence?
Bounty Killer,
“No I don’t expose violence but I expose what I go through and I go through violence. I’ve been shot once when I was fifteen years old and I sang a song about it. People think I’m singing violence but I am singing the violence that I experience. So most of the things I sing are things that are happening and things that I have been through as you know Jamaican culture.”
Bounty Killer performs on Saturday night. He will be sharing the stage with lover’s rock crooner Daville who visited Belize earlier this year. Daville’s presence is key because even promoters acknowledge there is some apprehension about Saturday night’s concert. To put it bluntly, when the man called “warlord” is on the mic, many want to know if Saturday’s concert will be safe. Well both Eastern
Division Deputy Commander Chester Williams and Daville say it will.
Daville, Performer
“Tomorrow night is a no violence thing. As the man said before, what we experience in life is what we put into the songs. It doesn’t mean a man needs to take it and get negative with it, literally, and then bring it into reality. So I am glad to be abck in Belize.”
Bounty Killer,
“So you say I’m so aggressive and the girls say he is delicate and tender so its smooth, rough edge, the balance. It’s a blast – kaboom.”
Sr. Supt. Chester Williams,
“The police will be policing the event, we have a detail of 25 police officers for the City Center and that detail will be headed by Supt. Edward Broaster who will be responsible to ensure that all security measures are taken at the City Center to ensure that there is no violence and basically to ensure that law and order is maintained throughout.”
