Bounty Killer Launches Alliance Record Label
Bounty Killer says he has officially announced the launch of his ‘Alliance Music’ record label and will now be moving forward at full speed into music production.
“Label is ready now for some production it’s been awhile now I haven’t done any production let’s go folks🥳💫🎉,” he noted on Instagram a few days ago, alongside an image of his new Alliance logo.
His followers met his announcement and the logo with much fanfare.
“Full time. Revive sum a dem scare dem productions also. Jazzwad line up di valley of death riddim deh!” culchagideon said.
“Do compilations like DJ Khalid instead not riddims with a bunch of artists. Taylor the beat to the artists,” perryblunt said.
The Warlord’s Alliance collective was established in 2003, with Busy Signal and Bling Dawg among his early mentees. Later, Mavado, Vybz Kartel, Aidonia, and even selector Foota Hype were added. These artists got extensive exposure early in their careers after the Warlord took them under his wing.
In an I Never Knew TV interview last year, Bounty had explained that the Alliance resulted from his burning desire to mentor and propel upcoming artists, just as his friend the late Boom Dandimite had done for him in his early years in music.
He had also explained that the name Alliance was not handpicked by him, but that due to the artists continuous references to their musical relationship with him as an alliance or allegiance, the name was adopted over time.
“Wi start to call wiself, di Allegiance, di Alliance. It was a word that we use among our friends – ‘wha a gwaan mi alliance fren?’ an di word get suh popular everybdy start call wi Alliance. Cause we neva seh wi have a crew name Alliane… but when you think about it, it’s a good thing: one for a all, all for one,” he had explained.
Bounty, in explaining how the Alliance was structured, had said that his strategy was to enable the artists to perform during his set at stage shows, which allowed them to hone their craft and get exposure.
“When I go to show, everybody, coming with me… That’s how they really started to master their craft, just come to a show with Killer. Nobody never really get any specialty treatment from the promoter or producer and then I start carrying them around to the producers I work with…because I always encourage the producers to work with the younger artistes…,” the Dub Fi Dub artist said.
“Just like when I carried Kartel to the producers first. He was not polished, but he was creative and talented and he just wanted some time and some nurturing and look at him now, they are all giants,” he had explained.
Bounty has been hailed time and time again as the grand patriarch of Dancehall, with his protégés from his Alliance collective being Vybz Kartel, Mavado, Aidonia, Wayne Marshall, Bling Dawg, and Busy Signal, and Foota Hype, among others.
He has been especially esteemed for never accepting money or fees from the artists, instead allowing them to earn from local and international shows, thereby improving their own circumstances.
The Alliance however, started to disintegrate in 2006, and over time several artists made their exits after falling out with the Warlord.
The first key Alliance member to fall out of favor with Bounty Killer was Vybz Kartel, who made his exit in 2006 following weeks of rumored tension between himself and the Gun Ready artist. This was purportedly in part due to Kartel’s ongoing affiliation with Beenie Man, who at the time was Bounty’s chief adversary. Kartel, however, attributed his departure from the Alliance to his pursuit of greater artistic independence.
Aidonia was purportedly expelled from the Alliance in 2007 after recording a song titled Addi a Mi Daddy, in which he praised and glorified Kartel—a gesture the Warlord considered a serious affront.
As for Mavado, according to The Star tabloid, the friendship between the singjay and Bounty became strained after a shooting incident during the Living Dangerously artist’s birthday party at the Quad nightclub in New Kingston in 2011. During this event, a member of Mavado’s entourage was killed by the police. Mavado was reportedly dissatisfied with the Warlord’s response to the incident, which caused a significant rift in their relationship.
The relationship soured further after one of Mavado’s Gully Side members, Chase Cross, released a diss song aimed at Bounty Killer. Bounty was displeased that Mavado failed to scold Cross, and the two severed ties as a result.
Foota Hype also fell out of favor with the Bounty in 2016 after he remarked during an interview on the Jamaican entertainment show OnStage that, although the Coppershot artist was a giant in Dancehall, he was ‘not hot’ because he repeatedly collaborated with the wrong producers.
An enraged Bounty Killer took umbrage to Foota’s statements and the two began trading insults on social media, with Foota even challenging Bounty to a duel and going as far as to remove the Seaview Gardens native’s music from his playlist.