Blak Ryno Says There’s No Chance He And Popcaan Will Ever ‘Link’ Again

There is absolutely no chance that Dancehall artist Blak Ryno will “link back” with Popcaan.

That’s according to Bike Back singer himself who answered a fan question during an Instagram Live yesterday, about whether the two former Portmore Empire stablemates would mend their relationship.  It was a timely question given recent efforts to promote ‘collaboration over confrontation’ in Dancehall.

In his answer to the fan, Blak Ryno used snacks he hates as an analogy to describe how he felt about the Unruly deejay whose name sounds like popcorn. “Me doh even like banana chips. Yuh see me potato chips, bench. Banana chips, bench. Popcaan, bench. Popcaan, bench. Wha else, cheese strips, worse off bench,” he quipped.

“Ganja present,” he added as he held up his spliff, indicating that marijuana was the only thing getting any kind of love from him these days.

Their beef goes all the way back to 2010 when Blak Ryno announced that he was leaving the Vybz Kartel-led GAZA camp.  The exit was heralded in the Ryno’s hit track, Mi Lef, in which he explained his headstrong reasons for ‘cutting’.

Popcaan remained loyal, and released Dem Sell We Out (2010) which dissed Ryno. “Look how Vybz Kartel did honor them/ Ungrateful people a go sorry when/ Every youth a get rich and you broke again,” Popcaan deejayed in defense of Kartel and the now-defunct camp.

Ryno responded to the blatant diss with U Vex Ee (2010) — the first of many tracks aimed at the camp — in which he deejayed, “How dem mean mi sell out? Freedom ova bondage mi sey, life ova death, good ova evil.”

Tensions flared in 2012 when the singers physically clashed during Supreme Promotions’ famous Sting event that year.  Ryno, who wasn’t formally billed to perform, took to the stage with a mic in hand during Popcaan’s set in an effort to confront and clash with the Risky singer.  Video from the event showed that Popcaan was having none of that, as he promptly pushed Ryno off the stage.  Security was quick to prevent the altercation from escalating much further when an irate Ryno climbed back onto the stage.

Their last exchange of diss tracks came in 2013 when Popcaan released Killa From Mi Born in response to Ryno’s Courage .

However, they seemingly came to a peace agreement in 2014 when Blak Ryno was spotted at Popcaan’s Where We Come From album launch. Ryno told reporters at the event, “Big up Poppy, Big up Popcaan, you done know album launch, you done know how the ting guh, my little brother for life.”  After learning that Ryno was in the building, Popcaan even called him up on stage and the two performed together.

“Everything between me and Popcaan always been good, a just the people never see me and the artiste. But everything good else I wouldn’t have turned out at his album launch recently and performed,” Ryno later told the STAR in 2014.

That peace seemed to last at least until 2016 when Ryno jumped into Popcaan’s famous war with Mavado, with the track Who Trick Dem aimed at the Gully Gad in defense of his “little brother”.

Now it seems that Ryno is singing a different tune amid his much-criticized foray into skin bleaching.  In recent Instagram Live videos, the Pedestal singer has been adamant about defending his character and has declared that he is going to start speaking up for himself.

He fired back at critics of his new image, saying that he really doesn’t care what anyone thinks anymore.

“Me nah go stop bleach, me ah continue bleaching, me buy some more bleaching cream and some more gel, mix them well and bleach me nah care wah none ah unuh say,” he said.  “But ah uno ah kill de people dem and nah know that. So me get strong and unuh ah train me for ten years.”