Bounty Killer Recalls ‘Ruption’ At Sting 2003

Bounty Killer, on Monday, recalled a momentous occasion at the now-defunct annual Sting stage show back in 1993.

The Warlord, who was a staple act on the Isiah Laing-promoted event, in reminiscing about the show, shared an excerpt from the fateful clash between Ninjaman and Vybz Kartel, which led to the first physical fight between artists in the history of the show and which left Ninjaman battered and bloodied.

The clip showed patrons hurling glass bottles on the stage after MC Nuffy told them that Bounty Killer was upset with the situation and had left the venue and would not be performing at the controversial one-night stage show.  It also showed at the end, co-promoter and artist-manager, Heavy D galloping to safety.

“Yes, well nice and lovely people, Killa leave and seh him nuh really love di vibes and love wha gwaan,” Nuffy is heard saying in the video clip as fans broke into a violent rage over the absence of Bounty Killer.

“Weeeeeeeey Yu Seeeeeeeeeh🤔.   No Good Moooooooorning then it’s not such a good morning👈🏿.   That’s why mi cyaah leave di green banana fi green card😂🤣😅,” an amused Bounty captioned the post.

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In January 2020, Laing had said in an interview with The Star tabloid, that the 2003 onstage fight between Vybz Kartel and Ninja Man, was the lowest point in the history of Sting.

Laing said that the bust-up between the two men, which caught him off-guard, was so embarrassing to him, that it took him about five years to consider having artists clash again.

The ex-policeman had said the only clash which was scheduled to take place that year, was between Ninjaman and Bounty Killer.  He said that Bounty had initially accepted the request to clash, but apparently got cold feet and colluded to send his protégé Vybz Kartel to lyrically tackle Ninjaman on his behalf.

“It was planned at another artist’s studio and they said send out Kartel on Ninjaman because Bounty Killer knew him wasn’t strong enough to take on Ninjaman. But he accepted the clash and seh him a ‘guh ova deh guh kill di bwoy,’” Laing had stated.

“So him send out him pickney (Kartel) fi go weaken him, but him no send him pickney out deh fi go damage him physically; that wasn’t a part of the thing. Dat is the worst taste in a clash because after that, we never do another clash until 2008,” he added.

The shenanigans at Sting 2003 had evoked written commentary from now Professor Donna P. Hope, who was then a doctoral candidate at the George Mason University in the United States.  The Dancehall Doctor had contended that “Sting delivered its greatest spectacle of violence to a sold-out crowd and the mediated audience via live Internet feed and subsequent media reports and talk show discussions”.

“Though representatives of Supreme Promotions clearly stated that there would be no clash this year, it is an open secret that the artistes and their management, the Sting 2003 audience and the wider dancehall fraternity were fully primed for the lyrical war between Ninja Man and select members of the group of dancehall artistes with which Vybz Kartel associates. This is a part of dancehall performance,” Professor Hope had noted then in The Gleaner.

“However, no one was prepared for this lyrical parody to break out into a fight on stage,” she added, noting that it was clear to Dancehall fans that “from very early that the hyped-up Sting 2003 crowd was on edge” as early on in the night, they had bottled Frankie Paul and German-based DJ, Gentleman offstage.

Professor Hope had noted that “violence as parody and performance is creative and spectacular”, but that “violence for violence’s sake is detrimental to our struggling society” and “presents us to the world at large as a bunch of rabble rousers and loggerheads”.

“These border clashes, riots and social upheavals foreground the negative while hiding the positive that makes us Jamaican.  In the final analysis, Jamworld is an excellent venue… Sting is a spectacular event. Ninja Man is a consummate performer and Vybz Kartel is a youth who needs some guidance…,” she had stated.