Jamaican Artists Urged To Emulate Real “Collab King” Bounty Killer Or Remain Stagnant
Lloyd Laing, the founder of CertifiedStreams, says Jamaican artists who don’t entertain collaborations are least likely to progress in the music industry.
The statement comes days after it was determined that the Five Star General Bounty Killer was Dancehall’s real “collab king,” contrary to those who believed Capleton held the title.
“Collaborate with people within your space, and outside of your space. We’re not fighting a race with Reggae and Dancehall anymore, it’s about the homegrown space competing on the global stage. It’s time to think about how we can stand on our and how we can expand. Collaborations are necessary…artists that don’t do that won’t reach anywhere,” Laing told DancehallMag.
Last week, Capleton announced that he will be releasing his first new album in over a decade, and that he recently collaborated with 20-30 artists. “Wha day dem change mi name, nuh to di ‘collab king’. ‘Collab king’, dem a seh… An mi have some upcoming yute – maybe about 20 or 30 a dem. Some a dem mi not even memba dem name, but mi give dem a strength…,” Capleton said.
However, according to Laing’s CertifiedStreams and Discogs, Bounty Killer stands at the pole position with 139 collaborations from a total amount of 689 cataloged songs. Vybz Kartel takes second place with 101 collabs out of 625 cataloged songs, while Capleton actually ends up in third place with 125 collabs out of a whopping 917 songs.
The Prince of Reggae, Dennis Brown, holds fourth place with 132 collaborations of 1029 songs and Sizzla closes off the top five with 114 collaborations out of 1018 songs.
Laing noted that it would be no easy feat to overthrow the Warlord, who has proven to be the most collaborative Dancehall artist.
“Even if someone is to surpass Bounty, it’s gonna take a while. It takes a while to rack up those numbers. It takes endurance to get your catalog with that sort of weight. Some artists’ catalog don’t even reach one-third of that. It’s not impossible but it’s gonna take work. They have to be the one going out there to do collabs,” he said.
Killer’s much-delayed double album King Of Kingston will further extend his lead when (or if) it is eventually released. The 50-track project reportedly has a record-breaking thirty featured artists, including Shabba Ranks, Chronixx, Stephen Marley, Barrington Levy, Dexta Daps, OMI, and more.
In addition, Bounty had shared that he made a special request of Damian Marley, the album’s executive producer, for a Bob Marley song on the project.
Laing praised the Bullet Proof Skin deejay, 50, for his versatility and adaptability.
“I think the figures go to show that his creative ability and his embrace of the newer style define Bounty Killer over the years. He did a collaboration with The Fugees [ Hip Hopera ] and that was a big one that nobody saw coming. He also did one with (Lil) Hanky Panky [ Dreams ] and that was a big one too. He enjoys having that creative freedom that comes with having different sounds and nobody has the variety of collaborations that he does in this industry,” he said.
For artists who may be struggling with reaching a wide cross-section of society, Laing says collabs are arguably the quickest route to achieving this.
“It is of the most important catalysts in pushing an artist’s career. It’s called craft marketing. Let’s say artist A has 25,000 fans then Artist B has 50,000. If both come together, they are exposed to each other’s audience. It allows you to extend your artist brand into another territory. When bounty did a collab with No Doubt, he would’ve been in the upper echelons if he had gone on tour with them,“ Laing reasoned.