News round-up for SOS - May 2006

Something of a row has erupted over Beenie Man's claim to be King of the Dancehall, following reports that the artist will be 'officially crowned' in a ceremony later this year. When Beenie released the hit single King of the Dancehall back in 2005, the claim went unchallenged, but now old time veteran Yellowman has spoken out, denouncing Beenie Man as a fool, a liar and a hypocrite for wanting to bestow the title on himself. Yellowman was dancehall's first major international star - the first ever deejay (as opposed to singer) to be nominated for a Grammy, touring the world and selling millions of albums back in the 1980s. As such he earned the title King Yellowman, which he's quick to point out was not of his choosing: "If me a king? That the people dem say, all over the world. Not Jamaica alone the people dem say it and them have been saying it for a very long time".

Part of Beenie's reasoning is that he's been in the dancehall business longer even than Yellowman: he started out on his uncle's Master Blaster sound system at the age of five, and released his first album, The Invincible Beenie Man: Ten Year Old Boy Wonder, back in the early 80s. Yellowman rejects this: "When me come innah dis business and start deejaying, Beenie Man still a swim round innah him father balls". But anyway, it seems like there's more important criteria than simply the amount of time each artist has spent in dancehall. Yellowman's hits have completely dried up since his heyday in the 80s and he's all but stopped recording, apart from recent comeback single Orphan for the Mad House label. Beenie Man has dominated dancehall since the early 80s, racking up over 50 number ones in Jamaica, winning DJ of the Year more than any other artist and enjoying international success with massive hits like Who Am I? and Dude. In a recent poll by Jamaican newspaper, The Star, 28% named Beenie Man as their favourite living artist; singer Beres Hammond came a distant second with 7%. It seems fair that both artists can claim to be kings of their own eras, though certainly the controversy over whether Beenie Man is fit to succeed King Yellow shows no sign of dying down.

Jamaican sound system Bass Odyssey emerged as victors from last month's UK Cup soundclash at Stratford Rex, beating off competition from UK representatives King Tubby's and X-Ta-C 4x4 plus Sentinel (Germany) and LP International (USA) before defeating fellow Jamaican Ricky Trooper in the final round. Bass Odyssey prevailed despite the absence of longtime frontman Squingey due to illness; his replacement on the mic, Worm, more than held his own.

Our congratulations go out to the Jamaican athletics team, who completely dominated the spring events at the recent Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. Jamaica became the first country ever to win all the spring gold medals at the Games, triumphing in the 100 and 200 metres individual men's/women's events, then walking away with the male and female 4x100 metre relay titles. The Caribbean island's track and field team ended the competition second only to hosts Australia in the medals table, finishing with ten gold, four silver and eight bronze medals.

Posted by Gabriel Heatwave | Monday 08 May 2006