Clash, ceasefire for Sting?
DEEJAY Vybz Kartel is expected to clash with Bounty Killer and then execute a cease-fire handshake with Killer’s protégé, Mavado, at Sting ’09 but Sting promoter Isaiah Laing isn’t worried.
He said that Sting is the best place to dismantle Gully/Gaza tribalism and that both deejays would be invited on stage in an early morning peace initiative.
“Hopefully Kartel, Mavado and anyone else who will like to join in the peace initiative will take the stage … I would love to see that,” Laing told Splash. “Sting is the place where the real hardcore people are and I think if it builds from there it will have great significance to see both of them together.”
Laing also wants the media to downplay the putative division.
“Play it down and we will get rid of it. Because if you try and play with it, it will get worse. It is not about Gully/Gaza this year. It is about Bounty and Kartel,” he said of Bounty Killer who heads the Alliance whose members include Mavado. “The hype is not out for a Gully/Gaza Sting this year and I don’t think people are coming out this year for that.”
Laing, who is a former police officer, did not object to Prime Minister Bruce Golding and his Cabinet intervening in diffusing the lyrical feud. Critics argue that the intervention of Parliament had given certitude to the deejays lyrical bickering. They argue that it was at best a police matter. In March 2007 when Deputy Commissioner of Police Mark Shields assisted in quelling the first feud between both deejays. They shook hands and were at loggerheads again in 2008/9.
“He is the prime minister and he sees it fit. Who am I to say otherwise,” he added. “The prime minister has asked for peace and we are supporting peace and we want to see everyone work together in harmony at the end of the show.”
On Tuesday Dancehall entered Jamaica House. Both deejays called a truce following an emergency meeting with three Cabinet ministers and members of the Peace Management Initiative. The meeting was called to quell the bitter feud between factions aligned to the two entertainers. Gully side and Gaza are headed by Mavado and Gaza respectively.
The two deejays have claimed there was no animosity between them and that the rivalry was sparked by over-exuberant fans. The meeting also worked out a five-point plan that will see both artistes participating in a peace treaty and concert; a ‘paint-out’ day to remove Gaza/Gully graffiti from walls in communities and schools across the island; the creation of T-shirts bearing the image of both artistes, and doing a collaboration single.
