BawdaCat And Drizzy: Rift In The Camp

Reginald ‘BawdaCat’ Brumley is a long time DJ and well-known comedian with a YouTube platform that rapidly grew in size. He became widely known to Jamaica due to the help of his young friend Drizzy, who became the videographer.

Jamaica fell in love with the site sage, his words of wisdom, and the humor that often arose from his cadence. The first few episodes took place on the site, or on a bench by the road. This new form that BawdaCat brought to entertainment space, took the shape of a dialogue/debate between himself and an antagonistic character that was usually the moving part. Eventually, we came to know Shawn, who was BawdaCat’s main opponent in these debates of logic. 

This format is not dissimilar to the Plato dialogues, Drizzy in this case being Plato, who recorded the dialogues of Socrates who in this case would be BawdaCat. Shawn eventually left the rotating cast as a result of payment disputes and accusations of “Badmind”. We were introduced to other characters such as Brooksie, who is the brother of BawdaCat, and later Lee who filled the role of the antagonist in Shawn’s stead. 

But what happens when Plato and Socrates split? What happens to the famous dialogues?

Well, BawdaCat and Drizzy seem to have had a falling out. BawdaCat erected a YouTube page called “Bawda Cat and Brooksie Tales”, on which he began to upload videos. People found this strange since the videos usually came out on the Drizzy Burke YouTube page, which had deleted all the old videos and was now posting more of the character Lee and less of BawdaCat.

A few days ago BawdaCat uploaded a video to the BawdaCat and Brooksie Tales YouTube, where he went on to detail the events surrounding the rift between himself and Drizzy. A rift that led to the parting of ways. Among many other things, Cat accused Drizzy of stealing from him, for a long time, disliking his brother Brooksie and even stealing his shirt. You can watch the full video below.

Two days later, Drizzy released a video in response, detailing what he termed as his side of the story. A story in which he accused BawdaCat of being “bad mind”, delusional and disrespectful among other things.

Watch the full video below.

https://youtu.be/g5Q44GTEQdY

The actual debate outside of the thievery accusations seems to be who should retain control over the platform. This type of confusion stems from a lack of formal appointments in these settings.

One has to understand the role they are playing and not just agree, but affix their signature to the agreement.

Drizzy, in this instance, would be acting as videographer, producer, and manager. BawdaCat would be the talent. The talent owns the intellectual property, but the manager gets paid by project or by the month. No manager should retain 50% of the earnings of any talent.

Neither should they retain ownership of the platform built on the name of a talent.

Managers build their own platforms in order to facilitate multiple talents. These are all details that need to be ironed out in discussion before entering into business.

Both parties are at fault, but there are some fundamental errors in thought that are contributing to the difference in opinion. Who do you think is wrong? Tweet @dancehallmag.