Usain Bolt Draws For Bounty Killer Lyrics, Warns Of PR Distractions In SSL Saga
Drawing for Bounty Killer lyrics, sprint legend Usain Bolt seems to have said all he needed to amidst the ongoing multibillion-dollar fraud debacle with Stocks and Securities Limited (SSL).
In posts to Instagram and Twitter yesterday, Bolt shared a black and white headshot of himself staring directly into a camera, and quoted lyrics from Bounty Killer’s 1999 hit Look, the iconic song once described by the Archbishop of Kingston as having “great philosophical meaning,” to register his disgust with the situation.
“Look into my eyes, tell me what you see, can you feel my pain? Am I your enemy? – Bounty,” Bolt wrote.
He added: “The real ones see through all the PR distractions. #Focus.”
Given the sprint icon’s well-known affinity for music, which sees him sometimes moonlighting as a music producer, letting the music do the talking for him, instead of his lawyers this time around, is far from an unfathomable move.
The caption is likely another subliminal shot fired by Bolt, who has largely remained tight-lipped as the SSL fraud scandal deepens.
It came on the heels of a statement from former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SSL, Zachary Harding, who said that during his tenure at the company, it was never shared with him that Bolt was a client of the investment firm, according to the Jamaica Gleaner.
The posts yesterday are the latest in a string of cryptic messages shared by the Trelawny native, who has been using social media sparingly, only posting hints here and there for his millions of followers to deduce what he might be thinking.
On January 16, he called out those responsible for the fraud with a five-second snippet of his 2022 track Cryptic World.
The 36-year-old was less subtle with this latest post, given the message in Look, which was released on Dave Kelly’s Bug riddim.
The song is an impassioned track about the pure desperation of a man in poverty, and the lengths he is willing to go to escape it, even if that means turning to a life of crime. And, though Bolt is far from being impoverished – that is, assuming his missing two-plus billion dollars weren’t all he had left – he may be able to relate to the song’s core message.
One of Dancehall’s most poetic and impactful songs ever, Look takes you into the mind of the desperate, and is a chilling reminder of what people might be capable of when their backs are against the wall. It’s both a message Bolt is trying to send, as well as a reminder that facing adversity is not uncommon to him.
The song’s first verse, shown below, seems incredibly apt for the track legend’s current situation, as it highlights the absence of wealth, alludes to the reluctance of those responsible not owning up to it, and clearly spells out what may happen if they don’t.
Look into my mind
Can you see the wealth?
Can you tell that I
Wanna help myself?
But if it happen that
I stick you for your ring
Don’t be mad at me
It’s a survival ting
Look into my heart
I can feel your fear
Take another look
Can you hold my stare?
Why are you afraid
Of my younger face?
Or is it this thing
Bulging in my waist?
The song isn’t short on references to abandoning one’s better moral judgement. Among highlighting the idea that the need for survival transcends all rational sense, the song also doubles as the testament of someone willing to die for what they believe in. That sentiment is captured in the lines:
“Well I’ve made up my mind
To end up in the morgue
Right now I rather die
‘Cause man a live like dog…”
Last year, Archbishop of Kingston, Kenneth Richards, after remixing Bounty Killer’s gun-toting song Ms Ivy Last Son, with lyrics calling for gunmen to turn their lives over to God, had declared himself a Bounty Killer fan, and said that believed the controversial Look had “great philosophical meaning”.
The archbishop had also said that in the days of his youth, he had a sound system in his car and was quite familiar with the lyrics of artistes like Bounty Killer. “It is a philosophical statement that persons need to hear because the society is so divided and alienated from each other. We need to recognise that we all are one, we are all brothers and sisters, whether we are born uptown or downtown etcetera, so we need to see each other,” the priest had said.
According to Damian Marley, it’s a “very powerful song. The way it’s written is very poetic. There’s something about the way he talks about all the details in the life of a so-called gangster in Jamaica that makes you feel everything. It’s very real, the song brings everything that he’s talking about to life.”
Marley added: “I remember when this song came out. It was really speaking to what was happening in the streets at the time.”
Since the news broke that Bolt had reportedly been fleeced of approximately US$12 million (J$1.8 billion), which the William High School old boy had invested at SSL, several members of the Dancehall industry have given their thoughts on the matter, among them Cham, Downsound Entertainment producer Skatta Burrell, Christopher Martin, Ce’Cile and Devin di Dakta.
According to the Financial Services Commission (FSC), SSL reported the $3-billion fraud, which was committed against 40 people including Bolt, to that the regulatory agency on January 10, after taking a statement from an implicated ex-employee on January 7.
Reports are that as of October 31, 2022, the total amount in the Bolt’s account at SSL, stood at US$ 12,758,181.74. However, that amount was reduced to a mere US$12,047.65.
Bolt’s legal team Frater, Ennis & Gordon, in an official letter to the manager at SSL, had given the institution an ultimatum to repay the monies by Friday, January 27, 2023, failing which the firm will proceed to take civil and criminal actions against the company and its directors.
Over the weekend, Bounty Killer had been vocal about the matter, throwing verbal jabs at, and jeering the management of Stocks and Securities Limited (SSL), the investment company where the sprint kingpin’s money went missing.
The Coppershot artiste had taken to Instagram where he demanded to know who was responsible for embezzling the billions of Jamaican dollars belonging to Bolt and other clients.
“A WHO RESPONSIBLE we want know we need answers🤔,” he had demanded in his first post, and added: “Dem say a conspiracy but me live fi see dem system nuh really consider we FRAUD DI ACCOUNT BETTER TEK ACCOUNTABILITY dem system nuh really consider we👈🏿”.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cnu3yh8BtIn/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=d3793acb-a23e-42fb-81ff-9809d850173f
Hours later he shared another post of a photo of the SSL headquarters, with an audio clip of a man mocking the company describing it as a society of scammers.
“Scamming Society Limited😊😂🥲😁😅,” Bounty captioned his post.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CnvZz3ihm9S/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=e016f0f3-7351-4abb-89ba-2b881d689b57