Busy Signal and Friends dominate Brown's Town

Busy Signal had quite a few friends to share in his grand homecoming last Friday at Addison Park, Brown’s Town, St Ann, as the deejay hosted Busy Signal and Friends Dancehall Dominance. Chief among them were Mavado and Bounty Killer, who closed the show with him in front of an enthused crowd.

The show’s finale was anticlimactic, however, as police hurried Bounty Killer to end his set at 3:50 a.m.

Busy Signal, dressed ghetto chic in an aqua shirt and a fitted pin-striped suit, got a rousing reception from his hometown folk as he was performing for the first time in Brown’s Town since making it big. The Red Label Wine poster boy played to the throng of females littered at the foot of the stage all night, the occasional crotch-grabbing eliciting screams and wide-eyed grins.

After teasing the women, he went into some of his ‘gangster’ tunes then called Mavado onstage. Without calling any names, Mavado through several verbal jabs at Vybz Kartel. “On the Gully side wi nuh bleach face nor bore tongue.”

Later he quipped, “How dem fi waan war mi general (Bounty Killer) when mi done kill them last year.”

He then crooned, “Tell dem walk wid dem casket any weh mi buck dem dem a go b##boclaat dead”, the crowd erupts.

While Bounty Killer groused about Kartel, who he will likely face in a lyrical battle at Sting on December 26, he had another matter on his mind – that of the non-issuance of a permit for Mavado’s Birthday Bash at Temple Hall, forcing it to be moved to The Building nightclub on Saturday night.

If dem seh is a Gaza/Gully problem, how come the Gaza people dem still have fi dem sum’n,” Bounty Killer said, referring to Usain Bolt’s 9.58 Super Party on Saturday, which had Vybz Kartel as one of the headliners. “Is injustice.

Bolt’s party was subsequently shut down by police just before Kartel was to perform.

The Alliance family aside, Assassin’s performance earned a rousing response from the crowd. As has become customary, Agent Sasco had a lyrically engaging set that showed his ability to actually perform a song as opposed to singing it. Songs such as Priority, Hand to Mouth and Same Ting Again

Again their on-point message resonated with the patrons. The near-perfect timing of DJ Bonez’s mixing also added to Assassins’ performance and kept it devoid of the need to bellow “low” and “level” to fill in the gaps.

St Ann’s own Romain Virgo had the crowd rocking non-stop with Cyaan Sleep, Murderer, Rain is Falling and Who Feels it Knows it. With a voice much more mature than his 19 years, Virgo returned for an encore with an Alton Ellis medley. The ‘Godfather of Rocksteady’ is laying quite comfortably in his grave.

Chris Martin came on in the cool 1 a.m. breeze with a full moon illuminating Addison Park, but he was a bit too ‘lovey dovey’. The patrons eventually warmed up when he drew for the grittier Nago change, Jacket and True Friends with D Major.

Earlier, female acts Tifa and Stacious really kicked off the performances, the latter ending her set with Head, her new controversial song that many speculate is throwing darts at Lisa Hype.

In between performances, Stone Love and Bass Odyssey provided the juggling. Bass Odyssey, a St Ann sound system, began their set with a special to Squingy, their iconic selector who died recently.

Just before midnight, MC Jenny Jenny excited the early bird patrons with give-aways from sponsors Red Label Wine, Lime 3G and Impulse energy drink.

Je_nu Brown, with more than enough ‘swag’, won the Red Label Wine Young Artiste section. Travis Gordon, who responded to the call (along with two other men) to challenge the Red Label Wine girls in dancing, won over the crowd with vim, vigour and vitality.