‘We come here and do what we haffi do’

Pier 1 in Montego Bay was the place to be last Thursday night as five big bad sounds vied for the coveted Reggae Sumfest Global Sound Clash title. At the end of the night, Bass Odyssey was left standing, having demolished all “dibby dibby tin pan sound”.

Bass Odyssey triumphed over defending champions Warrior Sound, Mystic Sound, Silver Hawk and Exodus Nuclear, winning for themselves the $250,000 prize money, $100,000 for playing the biggest tunes, a trophy and the all-important bragging rights. The latter took on added significance because the trophy went to Germany at the last clash in 2019 when Warrior Sound won.

“It’s a good look because at least yuh know that we a represent for Jamaica, so we know we haffi do this fi this little piece of rock yah. At the end of the day, a Bass Odyssey this … we never ever think about losing, we only think about winning. We come here and do what we haffi do,” a confident Stennett Waite and Damion ‘Delingy’ Dwyer told The Gleaner in a post-clash interview.

Delingy added, “Two Jamaican big sound get beaten the last time, and so it did up to we to tek back da title deh and settle back the score. The final dub-fi-dub round wasn’t anything hard because mi a clash now fi two decades. We know the ball game and know that anything can happen.”

The selectors described Reggae Sumfest as the biggest platform for dancehall and reggae music in Jamaica and shared that that was one of the reasons why Bass Odyssey entered the clash. “We come and we a bring back that clash sum’n yah and mek dem know seh the culture still deh a Jamaica. It nuh gone nowhere,” was Delingy’s patriotic comment.

Although he declared that it had “nothing to do with [him]”, he shared his opinion on a sub-clash between the people and the Warrior Sound versus the rules. It was a night on which expletives were taboo, per the rules, and Exodus Nuclear was disqualified for violating that contract. However, when Warrior Sound did the same thing and faced expulsion, the crowd clashed verbally with the emcee over the proposed enforcement. Afterwards, a decision was made that they would be allowed to remain in the competition since Warrior Sound was the defending champion.

RULES ARE RULES

“Yuh see Bass Odyssey, we clash all over the world, and we have been in situations where the rules is the rules, and we drop out and dance even nearly mash-up. I can remember Bass Odyssey, a lead straight through in a dance in England, and Squingy cuss one bad wud, and the rule was yuh can’t use profanity on the mic. We get eliminate, and the people never want Bass Odyssey go, and that was even worse than tonight. But we had to go because that’s the rules. When [Exodus] Nuclear drop out because of the excessive bad word and another sound drop out fi di same thing and come back inna the clash, mi a go tell the honest truth, mi neva like da part deh. But as mi seh, it’s not my business because it wasn’t me,” Delingy declared.

Soon after winning the Reggae Sumfest Global Sound Clash, Bass Odyssey was off to Calgary in Canada for a performance.

yasmine.peru@gleanerjm.com