Killer responded in kind with a track on the same hard-hitting riddim, making this round feel like a flashback mid-’90s dancehall session. Sticking with the hardcore dancehall, Beenie reached for one of his fan favorites, a mid-’90s banger on the “Hot Wax” riddim that was recorded during the height of his great lyrical war with Bounty Killer (and sampled by Drake on the album version of “Controlla”).
Bounty opted to open on an international note, leading with his first hip hop collaboration, a 1995 single by Brooklyn rapper Special Ed featuring a guest verse from young Bounty. 1 hit (on the Jamaican charts) in honor of the late great Bobby Digital, the legendary producer of this song and countless more, who passed away May 21. Bounty Killer’s “Just a Killa”īeenie kicked things off with his first No. VIBE x Boomshots Exclusive: Beenie Man & Bounty Killer Speak On Their Careers And… On the other hand, this was also the first time a Verzuz competitor has had to take a break in the action to negotiate with police officers.
Beenie and Bounty’s face-to-face clashes, especially their Boxing Day battles at the storied Jamaican stage show Sting in 19, are the stuff of dancehall legend. Despite whatever differences may have existed between them, both artists channeled all that energy into great records - many of which were played in the heat of the Verzuz battle.Īrguably the most exciting and spontaneous edition of Verzuz yet, the Beenie and Bounty battle was not a “clash” in the traditional Jamaican sense, but it was hardly a conventional beat battle either. Predictions that the island’s WiFi might not be able to handle the strain were soon dismissed - in keeping with Jamaica’s long tradition of raising the bar when it comes to using technology to create next-level musical entertainment, this was the best-produced beat battle of them all. Like all young aspiring artists, Killer had looked up to Beenie as an inspirational figure - until he felt that the artist had borrowed his style. Young Rodney Price, formerly known as Bounty Hunter, had just started to make noise under his new artist name Bounty Killer, recording hardcore hits for the legendary Waterhouse-based producer Lloyd “King Jammy” James. At that time the youth born Moses Davis in the Waterhouse section of downtown Kingston was already on the second leg of his career - having released his first album a decade earlier at the age of ten.