Entertainment

The media and clashes

I HEARD THE ads for the official reunification show with Beenie Man and Bounty Killer at the Llandilo Cultural Centre in Westmoreland, but did not hear any reports coming out of the show.

Certainly, neither THE STAR nor The Gleaner covered the concert, although there was extensive coverage given to the clashes of the early nineties through to the turn of the millennium.

What is past is past, but there are lessons to be learned from how the most intense and publicised clash between Jamaican artistes has been handled.

While we were busy covering and watching the feuding, there must have been many an artiste who would have done well with the air and print time. Media time makes or breaks artistes, so while we were busy with stories about Beenie and Bounty feuding (and, of course, they were not the only ones, just the most noted) there was just that much about other artistes we neglected.

So in the future let us not highlight a musical conflict to the detriment of covering other artistes who are not embroiled in controversy of some sort. Is it a coincidence that arguably the best crop of young artistes to come along since the bumper Buju, Terro Fabulous and, a little later, Bounty and Beenie era of the early 1990s has come recently, since the famous feud cooled down? We have Assassin, Vybz Kartel (not a personal preference, but the man is talented), Da'Ville and the renewed Tanya Stephens.

And note that the three deejays are lyrical people.

When the feud between Beenie Man and Bounty Killer was at its height, these people would not have been afforded the media time and, just as importantly, the prominence that is required to inscribe their names on the public's consciousness.

It is most curious that the media was very interested in the clashing, but not enough in the peacemaking to make it to Westmoreland.