Bounty Killer Says He’s Not Allowing Dancehall To Fall Victim To “Rat Trap Music”
The Grung Gad Bounty Killer has again made it clear that he is not in support of the dilution of, or any attempts to replace authentic Dancehall music with Trap sounds.
As he did in a 2019 radio interview in Trinidad, Bounty expressed his disdain on Sunday morning for members of the Jamaican entertainment fraternity who are recording their songs in Patois, but on Hip Hop and Trap beats and erroneously labeling it as ‘Trap Dancehall.’
In an Instagram post today, he posted a teaser of producer Suku Ward’s new Stench Dancehall riddim, and gave it a caption that mocked and dismissed the ‘Dancehall-Trap’ sounds, and left his followers laughing.
“Tink wi did ago just sit and watch dancehall fall inna unuh rat trap music🐀 Real producer and real artiste still alive👈🏿,” the Warlord wrote.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CQ6OUS7JMUp/
He was supported by Party Animal deejay Charly Black who responded: “Tell dem nuh trupidnis”.
Suku Ward’s new riddim is expected to feature a slew of songs, featuring some of Dancehall’s biggest names including the Grunggadzilla himself, Beenie Man, Christopher Martin, Busy Signal, Bling Dawg, and Craigy T of TOK.
A few days ago, the producer in announcing his new riddim, had declared himself as having all the elements of the “greats” that he idolizes in Dancehall music, including producers such as “’the teacher King Jammys’, Dave Kelly, Tony Kelly, Steelie & Clevie, Sly Dunbar and Teetimus”.
Bounty, along with veteran producer Danny Browne, has been at the forefront of the battle to get proponents of Trap sounds to stop mislabeling the genre and find another name for their new sounds.
Back in 2019, the veteran deejay had said that while he acknowledged that Trap music has become very popular amongst Jamaican youngsters, the fact that the American beats are in no way altered or injected with authentic Dancehall sounds, is a clear indication that they are in no way even remotely Dancehall.
The Coppershot artist has long contended that the new sounds of music are simply Trap fusions, which are American sounds, and should not be conflated with the Dancehall genre of music, which is an authentic Jamaican sound with a distinct drum pattern.
In his radio interview, Bounty had outlined the scientific reasons why the sounds could not be deemed Dancehall, noting that the notion of trap Dancehall was a misnomer.
“Nothing name Trap Dancehall. Trap music is trap music and Dancehall is Dancehall. So you can’t take two genre and make one. Weh name so?” he had said, pointing out that there could never be a genre called Reggae Soca or Rap-Trap either.
“So how you have Dancehall Trap? That is like stealing people’s music to make one. No. And Jamaica have such creative music? Why are we gonna thief people music?” the Seaview Gardens native had argued. “You cannot take it and make it Dancehall; it’s not. It was Trap and you take it. How it turn Dancehall? Yuh no do nuttn else but teck it and sing pon it now.”
Bounty had also said that the beatmakers were not even attempting to make their music distinguishable from Hip Hop and Trap, by inserting Dancehall elements such a kicks in order to “put a different vibes to it” as in the case of Afrobeat, which fused “Reggae vibes to it, but yuh can hear di Afro instruments”.
Instead, he said, the Jamaicans were only “playing the same groove, and tempo” singing Patois on it and then declaring the songs “Dancehall Trap”.
Bounty had also sought to school the errant beatmakers who were mislabelling the Trap songs and causing the confusion surrounding the role of language in the definition of the genre.
“Nooo, is not the language make the genre; it is the groove and the beat and the tempo and the sound that create the music. So not because wi sing patois on a riddim it turn Dancehall,” he had said.
“And dat is what most a di producers doing, giving the youths dem some pop music, Trap music R&B style riddims. And just because wi a chat like Jamaican pon it dem seh a Dancehall. No. The music represents itself. Patois no mek nuttn Dancehall…,” he said.