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Super Cat Headlines Triller Verzuz Concert With Dexta Daps, Cham, Kranium, Konshens, Barrington Levy And More

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When the pandemic started, many people in the music industry contemplated how to get people to pay for concerts online in large numbers. Triller and Verzuz answered that question last night with TrillerVerz III Weekend kick-off. They paired world-class boxing matchups with a concert featuring some of the biggest names in Dancehall at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

TrillerVerz III is the third event in the TrillerVerz series, after the first two events debuted in August and surpassed 5,000,000 unique viewers.

The weekend extravaganza has separate tickets for each event starting at $27.50, however, fans from across the world are able to watch the events, (including last night’s Dancehall showcase) for a $2.50 monthly subscription to Trillerverzpass.

The new concert series, ICONZ presented by Verzuz, got underway after the live boxing and the headline act was dancehall legend SUPER CAT.

Before Super Cat graced the stage, however, several guest acts made their mark.

Starting off the event Teejay the Uptop Boss and Kranium wowed the Brooklyn crowd. Wylcef Jean played toastmaster, DJ and the MC for most of the night. One stand-out moment during his DJ set was when he played a Kenny Rogers Dubplate which set the tone for the real dancehall vibes to come.

Dexta Daps, predicted by Bounty Killer to be the next big international star of Dancehall, was one of the night’s best performers. He gave a short but thrilling tribute to Supercat as he mimicked the DJ’s rude boy style and swag.

After Dexta Daps, Wyclef reentered the stage to give an energetic Hip-Hop tribute to KRS-One who was in the audience, indicating he used to open for KRS one.

Konshens then took the stage to resounding applause. In high dancehall fashion and match with signature red hair, his presence in-stadium validated the space for contemporary Dancehall in the mainstream music industry.

The concert reached its peak guest performance when Cham came onstage releasing a slew of hits from the 90s and 2000s. Barrington Levy followed with exceptionally clear vocals. His hits sound the same on stage as they do on Spotify or Tidal HiFi.

It would not be a dancehall concert if there was no artist wanting more time onstage. “I’m too experienced to be taken for a stroll I’m too experienced for someone to rock and roll”, Barrington sings as some indicated to him his set was to be cut shorter than he wanted. It would take another 7 songs done by acapella before the Broader Than Broadway singer would leave the stage.

A soundclash followed with Lion Face and Kingpin of King Addies, in what seemed like an awkward show order. Lion struggled to command the crowd in the beginning but the two found a way to win some lukewarm responses with dubplates from Chronixx and Buju Banton.

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At 10:55 exactly, Super Cat was introduced to the stage.

He entered wearing a full pinstripe suit and started out with freestyles.  He kicked off the performance with Nuff Man A Dead and his popular chart-topping hit Dem Nuh Worry We,  which features the late great Heavy D.

Super Cat’s performance was in his usual toasty, saturated style, occasionally saluting other artists from his era with effortless freestyles.

“All them bloodclaat chune deh a Jammings off key chune dem, hard fi follow inuh cause Jamin nuh have no memory inuh”, he said, as he struggled to perform one of his older songs.

For his performance of Dolly My Baby, the Billboard Hot 100 DJ was joined by a model onstage holding a sign with the song title and Triller logo in what seemed like more of an advertisement or signaling the start of a boxing round. That did not add to his performance.

When he went into Mud Up the Caribbean audience regained interest, forcing the band on hand to do a pull-up. His vineyard-style classic got Wyclef excited in the crowd but by this time the crowd was desperate for bigger moments during his performance.

To add insult to injury, he stopped a few times to launch into an incoherent rant at American political leaders. “Big Pu–y bwoy Donald Trump,” he lashed.

“How come a big pu–y bwoy like you split United States innah two”

The veteran Sting clash DJ who once promised an audience to “fire a shot” in the crowd went even more political when he said, “We nah beg President bwoy a United Bloodclaat State.”

“Warning Warning Warning watch out mek me come dung” got the crowd excited again and briefly took the focus away from his political rants. His performance was filled with up and down moments but the capacity crowd stood there with him as the sweat ran down his face they basked in his 1980s style dancehall flows.

“Anyweh me go it haffi cawk,” he sang assuredly.

Towards the end he said “Daddy rusty” before exiting giving himself what seemed like a performance score. Super Cat is however nothing but rusty, he may not have the energy he did back in the 90s when he told a crowd at sting “me have me gun pon me” or “any pu**y fling another bokkle me shot dat now”, but his vocals are as crispy clear as ever and his hits are just as fresh.

In the end, perhaps both Barrington Levy and Cham could have gotten more time to perform.

The TrillerVerz III weekend continues tonight at the Barclays Center with Hip Hop Legends Big Daddy Kane vs KRS-One.