Bounty Killer Honors Former Rival Super Cat: “Give The Apache His Flowers Now”
The Warlord Bounty Killer, out of the blue, took to Instagram to honor his musical inspiration and one-time combatant Super Cat, a few days ago, noting that their musical rivalry was now a thing of the past.
Bounty took the opportunity to remind his followers that Super Cat, whom he has always credited as the man who popularised gunslinger lyrics, is the original rude boy of Dancehall.
“1st international hardcore dancehall artiste give the Apache his flowers now despite our indifferences in the past history a history way more than misery or mystery salute di DonDadda🍾🥂,” Bounty wrote, under a video post of the Don Dadda in performance on DJ Cassidy’s Pass The Mic Reggae Edition 2022.
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“Him set it for us all credit is due👈🏿,” he added later.
In December last year, during an interview with YouTuber Teach Dem, Bounty Killer had laughingly listed Super Cat as being the earliest among the long string of high-profile lyrical and personal feuds he has had over the years, spanning his own mentees, rival artistes, former friends, collaborators, and even his mentors, when he was a hot-headed youngster.
Bounty explained that he and Super Cat had squared off in 1994 when, after the Seaview Gardens native recorded a single dubbed, Riding West—a song penned by Pinchers in which the Warlord sang about being a cowboy who fires shots on approaching Indians.
“Well, me an Super Cat neva have nuttn. Hear wha happen now. You si di song weh she ‘riding through di desert’? I neva even write a word inna it. Pinchers write dah song deh enuh … and Super Cat heard it,” Bounty said.
He explained that Supercat, who is of Indian descent, took offense to the lyrics about ‘flying Indian feathers’ in the song and recorded the diss track, Hear Dem Seh , in which he said he would “murda Bounty Killa through him sombrero”.
And den now, when mi sing di line weh seh: ‘shot him, an mek him feather dem fly’, mi neva really a look at it dah way deh. If a me a Super Cat a same way mi woulda react…,” he said laughing.
“Choo a nuh me write di song, mi neva a dissect dah line deh… suh di man tech it wicked and di man come seh: ‘scalp dem and heng dem up high’. So den me hear it now an seh: ‘di man call mi name. Caw me did really just seh ‘shot Indian’. Mi neva seh you. A nuh like him seh ‘scalp cowboy’. Di man seh Angel Eye and Bounty Killa fly. Mi she: ‘a wah dat? Mi neva call you. Mi a talk bout Indian. An even if yuh a Indian and feel a way, mi understand. But mi neva seh you…’,” Bounty added.
Bounty, who had counteracted with Ancient Days Killings declaring that Super Cat was using old-fashioned style and lyrics, that scalping was from the olden days, that he robs Indians and takes away their girlfriends, explained to Teach Dem how this song came about.
“Suh him call my name, mi haffi call back him name. An den now, me a di likkle veteran a come and him a di old veteran. Me caan meck you meck mi look like eediat Super Cat. Mi rate yuh and everyting, but listen mi now: mi a guh diss you. Suh mi did haffi stan up to him an diss him back. Me rate Super Cat; we look uo to Super Cat. Super Cat is the boss…. Suh yuh haffi stan up to di Cat and den yuh a guh look like a big man.”
Bounty said Super Cat’s brother Junior Cat prolonged the lyrical feud after he intervened with diss songs of his own.
“We look up to Super Cat shu wi coulda overlook weh Cat do. But Junior Cat him now a push it. An him know she him nuh bad. Suh wi jus give it to him an a him meck it kinda likkle guh further, caw Cat woulda figat it long time… mi did haffi diss him and kinda diss Cat likkle bit again enuh,” he explained.
“But, when yuh check it out, in hard core gangster deejaying, Super Cat is the boss. He was the one who really started it,” Bounty said.
Back then, at the height of the lyrical feud, Super Cat threatened to knock Bounty’s teeth out, at Reggae Sunsplash 1996. A hot-headed Bounty had responded, calling him ‘old furniture’.
In 2002, long after the issue fizzled, Super Cat revived the hostilities at the Sashi stage show threatening the Warlord on stage and later complained to The Gleaner, that the Callalloo Bed native “had no manners”.
Bounty, who has long declared that he does not make his lyrical battles physical, had later waved the “white flag of peace” in an open letter, noting that he always had respect for Super Cat and that he believed the Wild Apache only used Sashi as an opportunity to get old feelings off his chest.