Beenie Man Opens Up About Billboard Snub, Tony Matterhorn Says ‘I Told You So’

Dancehall King Beenie Man has opened up about why he believes Billboard magazine snubbed him and the Warlord, Bounty Killer, from a digital cover of a story on Verzuz.

Meanwhile, Dancehall selector Tony Matterhorn says he saw this type of disregard coming and is now speaking up to counteract the ‘bad mind’ statements that were directed at him for suggesting Beenie and Bounty were ‘sell-outs’ in the lead up to their Verzuz battle on May 23.

Matterhorn implied that the two Dancehall legends avoided any engagement with Jamaican Instagram Live events during that time but opted to participate in the Verzuz clash. Now with how things are unfolding, Matterhorn isn’t shying away from telling everyone, especially those who condemned him, ‘I told you so.’

In regards to the Billboard cover, Beenie told Winford Williams, during a recent episode of Onstage, that there are no hard feelings about the snub.  However, if he were to point a finger on someone to blame, it would be the writer of the story and not the magazine. He felt the writer’s angle was more on what Verzuz has done for the Hip Hop and R&B genre. While he and Bounty were mentioned in the article, he asserted, “If yuh a go write a story about Verzuz, you haffi write a story about us.”

That being said, the Who Am I deejay feels it was a natural course for the editors at Billboard to center the cover of the magazine on the story within, which really didn’t have much to do with Beenie Man nor Bounty Killer.

To our fans: While we are honored that #Verzuz made the cover of Billboard, this would not have been possible without Beenie Man & Bounty Killer, who set a big tone for our audience and represented for Jamaica 🇯🇲 🙏🏽 pic.twitter.com/JUowlQKKIQ

— VERZUZ TV (@verzuzonline) August 10, 2020

During the uproar over the story last week,  Beenie joined the ‘#TimeNow’ calls for better representation of Dancehall music on digital streaming services and at award shows. “#TimeNow Allow us entertainers & creatives the same opportunity as the other genres that ‘borrowed’ our style,” he said in one tweet on August 11.

In an interview with The Weekend Star on Friday, Matterhorn said that it’s unfortunate it took such a ‘slap in the face’ for the fraternity to finally understand what he was trying to say.

“Some a unu just a see di light bout unu a tweet #TimeIsNow. The time was two months ago when mi tell unu say all dem a go do a use the culture and nuh gi we di respect, but I guess a dis Billboard thing it take fi unu see,” he said.

The popular sound selector/deejay made the point that it took another blatant disregard for the culture to raise this type of discussion and argued this as the reason why the industry was flawed.

He continued, “We always run dung people weh nuh business wid we. Mi glad how me stay. If yuh nuh rate me, mi nuh rate yuh neither. A so we fi start operate. Now everybody wah rally round but mi nah look because when Matterhorn did say it, unu talk say mi bad mind and mi a fight against the culture.”

As a long time advocate for Dancehall music and the culture, Matterhorn said he took the ‘bad mind’ accusations very personal and was truly upset.

“Unu think me did a fight against Verzuz? Mi nuh have a thing against Verzuz. All mi did a try say at the time is that we need to build our own platforms and stop work wid foreign things because at the end of the day, we always get the sh***y end of the stick,” he said.

“Mi word come to pass and when the Billboard thing happen, a whole heap a people tag me a say dem see weh mi did a say. Nobody nuh need glasses fi see say di two man dem weh get left off di cover a di two man dem weh set the bar on dat show. And as somebody weh represent the culture 100 per cent, mi upset more dan even some a dem weh a talk now bout #TimeIsNow because we out there a put in the work fi dancehall. Mi just hope unu listen now and start build unu own thing,” he continued.

American producers Swizz Beatz and Timbaland created the Verzuz platform in efforts of pouring new life into music and entertaining the masses across the globe during the pandemic. The outcome took us back in time to appreciate some of our favourite artistes, including, of course, Beenie and Bounty as well as Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, John Legend, DMX, Snoop Dogg, Kirk Franklin, Alicia Keys to name a few.

Upon the release of the Billboard story, Swizz expressed his disappointment with Billboard for snubbing the two deejays, he posted an edited version of the cover to include Beenie and Bounty and removed himself and Timberland from the illustration.