Bounty Killer On Lip-Syncing In Dancehall: “It’s Annoying. It’s Not Good”

Bounty Killer has made it clear that he disapproves of Dancehall artists who attempt to lip-sync or sing along to their tracks during stage shows, particularly when their lips, voice, and body movements are not properly synchronized with the music. In fact, the Dancehall icon says he abhors the “annoying” practice and asserts that during live stage performances, artists must strive to spit their lyrics live over the riddims.

Bounty made his comments during an interview with Joy Daily TV after the host pointed out that he and other artists of his generation sound “exactly like the record,” during live performances and that there was “no need to play your track like a lot of these hip-hop artist when they perform…”

“And the younger ones that coming up in Dancehall they practicing it, and it’s annoying. It’s not good,” Bounty interjected.

“And then now, sometime you can sing over the track, but if you’re going to sing over the track you got to synchronize. You got to can sync it. Beyonce sing over track but you can’t tell, because the way how shi rehearse an lock it tight, you have to be a professional musician to know that she’s singing over tracks, cause she’s not gonna let the track go there, and she’s right there and you can’t hear the track separate from her,” the Ghetto Dictionary artist argued.

“Some people not putting in the right effort. Cause if I’m singing over my track, you not going to hear the big difference, cause I’m gonna sync. But some people don’t even know that if you’re going to sing over the track you got to go exactly like it and put it on like a gloves. But is not the best thing to do; you must sing back the song yourself. And most people not practicing to do that,” he added.

Bounty also pointed out that while the practice appeared to be accepted in Hip-Hop circles, it remains a no-no in Jamaican music.

“That’s a Hip-Hop thing. It’s cool in Hip-Hop world but in Dancehall… Jamaicans don’t cool with that. They don’t know it like that,” he explained.

Bounty also referenced the 2015 Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival in Trelawny, where Mariah Carey tried to lip sync, an act which infuriated the Jamaicans in attendance.

“Mariah Carey came here and sing over tracks and they booed her. And that’s Mariah Carey. Cause she not singing. So it’s a dangerous thing. It’s not everywhere you can do that. Some place don’t accept that,” he disclosed.

Mariah’s disastrous performance in Trelawny was talked about for months following her departure from Jamaica.

Days after the Jazz festival, Dr. Michael Abrahams a gynaecologist and obstetrician, who also doubles as comedian and poet, had described the songstress’ performance as “one of the most epic fails in Pop Music history”.

Pointing out that he was a huge fan of the Touch my Body singer, Dr Abrahams had noted in a Gleaner column that “reports had been circulating before the event regarding some sub-par performances delivered by her during the previous year”.

With the excitement in the audience at the Trelawny Multi-purpose Stadium at a fever pitch, Dr. Abrahamns said that when the Fantasy singer “opened her mouth to deliver, something very strange happened, as “the flawless singing that we heard blasting from the sound system was totally out of sync with the movements of Ms Carey’s mouth”.

“It was reminiscent of those karate movies, or ‘kickas’, that I watched in my youth, where the actors spoke in Chinese but their voices were overdubbed in English, producing a rather comical effect at times,” Dr Abrahams had relayed.