Sting 2006 came to an anti-climactic end on Wednesday morning after
dancehall deejay Bounty Killer was prevented from going onstage to
challenge Beenie Man by security personnel and a prominent member of Beenie
Man's entourage.
Although the situation was quickly defused, anxious patrons began
to file for the exits after both deejays, Vybz Kartel and Beenie Man
left the stage after a minor tussle. At least two bottles were thrown at
the stage, and a reporter spotted a patron being subjected to an
efficiently executed beating to the face at the hands of uniformed police
officers. Some disgruntled fans, obviously mistaking the backstage area
for some lopsided Israeli-Palestinian turf war, threw large stones at
heavily armed cops 'roughing up' the young man. Luckily, no one was
injured by the stones and no guns were discharged in the brief face-off
betweens fans and the cops.
Before Bounty Killer attempted to go onstage, the show had been
going admirably well. Vybz Kartel got major forwards from his hometown
audience for hit songs such as 'Beyonce Wine', 'Tick Tock' and 'I
Neva', before calling on Beenie Man. Beenie performed 'Roll Deep' and even
apologized to Spice for the altercation which resulted in her being
'boxed' at GT Taylor's Magnum Xtravaganza stage show on Christmas Day.
"Spice, if anything happen, mi apologise, it tek a real man fi say sorry,"
he told the crowd to a mixture of loud cheers and boos.
He took a swipe at Bounty Killer when he deejayed the line which
suggested that Angel ended her relationship with Bounty when she "find
out that mouth water coulden breed har'. This remark was greeted with
laughter and cheers. However, there were scattered attempts at boos, but
the cheers and jubilant rag-waving soon drowned out the dissent,
especially when Beenie Man instructed 'mek me see the hands of mi fans dem'.
Then Vybz Kartel deejayed 'Bad From', and then prefaced the song
'Dis Bad Man Yu Get Gunshot' with the comment that he was neutral in
the war between the long-time archrivals.
Earlier Bounty Killer was his usual imposing self. Dressed in
full black, he appeared to be the incarnation of a 'lyrical Grim Reaper'
as he delivered old war tunes such as 'Lodge' and 'War', as well as new
hits, 'Bryco'. He earned great applause from the Sting crowd which was
rabid for a clash but Beenie Man failed to show when Killer called him
out. Killer made a case for Beenie Man as the continued antagonist in
their now-ancient feud.
"Ruff Kut was my band and him tek it, Angel was my girl, and him
tek har too," he said.
Killer performed after a scintillating, hit-studded performance
by Mavado during which the rising Alliance superstar earned massive
forwards from the 35,000 strong crowd at Jamworld Portmore.
Second time Sting performer Idonia gave a good performance which
was better than last year's set. Even though in between his set a few
patrons decided to clap him off, but that didn't last for long because
majority of the audience gave him several encores. He however was booed
when he uttered unsavoury comments about his one time manager and
producer Cordell 'Skatta' Burrell. Idonia was later allegedly arrested and
charged for using indecent language during his performance.
Check out www.yardflex.com for the full Sting
