"They Don't Know / Corrupt" by Bounty Killer

Montego Bay, Jamaica. July 2009. Reggae Sumfest.

In Ocho Rios, I had picked up tickets for two of the music festival's three nights: Thursday (Dancehall Night) and Saturday (International Night 2).

Dancehall Night was a rapid immersion into a culture totally foreign to me. The music as aggressive, as vulgar, as violent as anything. One performer after another, all sex and murder and rivalries, all night long. The fans flashed hand signals, twirled towels, fired blowtorches (blowtorches!), made pistols with their fingers and shot them into the air "brrrup brrrup brrrup!" And on this night, there was a ceremony to officially crown Beenie Man the king of all this. But it was Bounty Killer who stole the show.

A cousin who I stayed with in Kingston had told me about Rodney "Bounty Killer" Price. Once the typical dancehall "artist," bragging and boasting and threatening. But he had changed. He had matured. He had evolved. He had developed a social conscience, was making more meaningful music, was using his lyrics to bring attention to the plight of the poor and disadvantaged in the tradition of some of his most famous countrymen. (At least, when he's not beating his girlfriend or driving drunk.)

I returned to the festival Saturday for International Night 2. This was an evening of more easily digestible music for a more diverse audience. Tarrus Riley was good. Toni Braxton was bad. Tito Jackson, performing shortly after the death of his brother, was awkward and uncomfortable. But it was the likes of Damian Marley and Nas that I had come to see. After a night full of music, they finally took to the stage at about five in the morning, performing separately as well as together to promote their collab album "Distant Relatives." And who should join them onstage halfway through their set but, of course, Bounty Killer. That was when I realized what a force this man was. The crowd went insane, or at least, the couple hundred who had stuck around long enough to watch the sun come up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yk37PcZ6TPQ