‘Bounty Killer is right’ - Gramps Morgan, Contractor say
Singer, producer say artiste’s assessment of ‘Ye’ is not a ‘diss’
Published:Monday | March 27, 2023 | 12:46 AMYasmine Peru/Senior Gleaner Writer
Dancehall heavyweight Bounty Killer has been making headlines following an interview last week with I Never Knew TV, in which he shares his assessment of music, including dancehall and Afrobeats and how each affects, or doesn’t affect, the other. The question posed was: “Do you believe that dancehall music still has a place on the international market with the emergence of Afrobeats?”
While many on social media are praising him for what they call “an honest assessment”, Bounty is also facing some amount of backlash for referencing Nigerian artiste Burna Boy’s Ye, during a comment about the dearth of lyrics in Afrobeats tunes.
“Afrobeats have no lyrics; they have a lot of melody, groove, and topic. Ye ye ye is not a lyric; it is a topic. The song only has a style, melody and topic ... Ye, ye. Dat a lyrics? Dat a topic. Ye, ye, we know what ye ye ye, mean … those are topic and di melody. Style, melody, topic. Simple!” Bounty told the interviewer.
One of Burna Boy’s fan pages, burna.boy.news, was quick to lead the way with comments which sought to belittle Bounty Killer, while defending of their idol. “That man na craze did he listen to the verses? Burna Boy knows how to entertain people while sending a message at the same time. Ye is about hustling for a better life. This guy na dust full him head mtcheeeeew.”
However, producer and singer Gramps Morgan of Morgan Heritage sees no need for any kind of backlash whatsoever and defended the integrity of the dancehall artiste’s statements.
“People need to listen the entire interview and yes ... Bounty Killer is right,” the Grammy Award-winning artiste said.
“There’s not much to really say expect the man is talking facts. The song he referenced is explained perfect ... there wasn’t much [that was] needed to make the song a hit ... just a grey melody, not complicated lyrics or words and a great topic with a great beat,” Gramps said, when asked about Ye.
The opening for Ye does have the word “ye” a total of 43 times, and it closes out with “ye’ being repeated more than 70 times. On YouTube, Ye has scored 227 million views since its release on August 6, 2018. It is the sixth single from Burna Boy’s third studio album Outside, released on January, 2018.
In responding to a post on social media by someone who suggested tha Bounty Killer sounded “a bit bitter”, Gramps stated, “There should be no competition between family. That is his message. Unity and love!”
Producer, Sean ‘Contractor’ Edwards, firmly believes that it’s all a matter of misinterpretation and noted that “Bounty was actually commending the Burna Boy song”.
“Bounty Killer’s comment was taken out of context,” Edwards emphasised,”He was making an example of how these young dancehall artistes should make songs. It has a topic that everybody can relate to. There’s a different language of music around the world.”
Edwards also popped Bounty’s collar for fully shutting down any suggestions that in order for dancehall to triumph then Afrobeats has to play second fiddle, or vice versa.
“Afrobeats has nothing to do with dancehall,” Bounty told the interviewer, “Afrobeats is another genre. Afrobeats never came in competition with dancehall or came with intent to take something from dancehall. I don’t know why people keep on comparing Afrobeats and dancehall. Why? Afrobeats is like a baby from dancehall; it’s a relative.”
Edwards pointed out that Bounty Killer is certainly not averse to doing Afrobeats songs, as evidenced by the recently released single, Who Deh Like You, a Morgan Heritage track which also features Bounty, Cham and Stonebwoy. Who Deh Like You debuted at number one on the US Afrobeats charts on March 17. Bounty Killer, who also expressed his joy at Afrobeats doing so well, and “complementing dancehall,” has been actively promoting the track on social media.