Bounty Killer’s Take On Women With Long Nails – Are They Unfit For The Kitchen?

Bounty Killer stirred up a hornet’s nest on Sunday night after he decried women wearing extra-long artificial fingernails, and poured scorn on their ability to sanitarily prepare meals and take care of their personal hygiene.

Bounty shared a short video clip of a photo of a woman’s hand showing highly embellished aquarium/fish tank nails, and expressed his discomfiture, pointing out that women who wear nails of that nature will be unable to prepare traditional Jamaican meals and, in particular, peel green bananas, which historically, has been the benchmark which determines woman’s ability in the kitchen.

“I’m done playing.  yo look like a f*cking Lazer Lamp I bcuz how the hell the banana gonna peal? how the callaloo going to strip? how the ackee gonna get pick? too much cosmetic now🤔🤐,” he captioned the post.

He was joined by his protégé Kalado, who jumped in the comments after one woman declared that: “Nails don’t stop me from doing nothing. All that you just pointed out can be done with women who wear nails. Ijs 🤷🏻‍♀️”.

“@suzietoocute and u alone eat it 😆,” Kalado jeered.

After the commenter, in response to another assertion that long nails “carry a barrage of germs”, said that “gloves can be worn”, the Warlord waltzed into the comments with a most mocking reply.

“Glove to wash the p_ssy all bcuz of fancy nails?🤔” the Bounty replied, to the amusement of his fans.  

Another woman was at the mercy of Bounty’s gift of gab, after she declared that: “But nobody nuh need to strip callaloo anymore. Who have time fih siddung and strip callaloo stalk by stalk. As fih the banana boil it with the skin, use the thong utensil to remove the skin…raddam food ready😂😂😂😂”.

But, Bounty unceremoniously charged at her, declaring that it was obvious that her husband has little or no social graces or manners.

“Mi nuh waah see ur husband must butuh😅😅🤣,” the Warlord mocked.

There were many women who agreed with Bounty, pointing out that it was indeed unsanitary for women with long nails to be in the kitchen preparing food.

“Maybe me born wrong because as a woman, my nails cannot look like this. Sorry!!!!!!! Besides long nails aren’t allowed in my kitchen,” one female chef said.

Jokes aside, Bounty Killer’s concerns about the hygiene of long nails are not unfounded though.

In Jamaica, the Ministry of Health bans prohibits persons with long nails and even nail polish from getting food handlers permits, even if they pass the written test at the respective parish food handlers’ clinics.

As a part of appropriate hand hygiene for food handling and even health care, nails are to be clean and trimmed as long nails may harbour dirt and germs and can contribute to the spread of some infections, such as pinworms, according to the Centre for Disease Control.

In food establishments in Jamaica, including hotels, food processing factories and restaurants, fingernails of culinary staff, is expected to be kept short, and the undersides cleaned frequently with soap and water. 

As for nail polish, it is also prohibited, as there are concerns that it may chip and tiny pieces could end up in food, or on equipment, utensils and food wrappers.

Bounty Killer is not the first Dancehall artist to publicly pour scorn on women with long nails.    

In 2000, Mr Lexx scored one of his biggest hits ever with Cook, a tale of how he dealt with a long fingernail-sporting woman – who could not do household chores, including cooking Sunday breakfast – by cutting her nails, handing her a cookbook and ordering her off to the kitchen.  He sang:

Big sunday morning yuh laid down inna bed
Before yuh boil two banana, steam two fishead
Yuh mad, bout yuh waan sausage and egg
Big man nuh waan nuh bully beef and bread
First ting, mek me get yuh fingernail clip
Snip snip, tall fingernail tek ah trip
Yuh know seh yuh caan peel banana wid it
Plus dumplin, dumplin”

Cook was released in 2000 by Steelie and Clevie on the Bitter Blood riddim, and, according to Mr Lexx, the idea for the song came whilst he was transporting the wife of a friend of his to her home.

According to him, the woman, who was very beautiful, said she was hungry, and instead of stopping at the supermarket as he had suggested to pick up groceries, she insisted that he take her to Burger King as she was “not into cooking”.