The 40th-anniversary celebration of dancehall stage show Sting was marred by a low turnout and a chaotic end as new artists Fully Bad started a shoving contest with Honormosity that saw both acts flying off the stage.
This was in contradiction to the no violence expectations announced by Isaiah Laing, Chairman of Supreme Promotions who told WMV that this year would be his final year promoting a clash at Sting and that he would hand over the reigns of the brand to his son. He had promised that this year would not be marked by violence saying this year will be, “mature artist, nice vibe with the ten giants going out there to give them A – game. Ninja Man is not here so no gun gonna be in play. Nobody nuh so brave.”
That promise was kept for most of the night with great performances from Turbulence, Capleton, Chuck Fender, Baby Cham, Bounty Killer. Then at the very end during the clash with two relatively unknown acts at around 6:30 am ; Kyodi and Fully Bad saw Honormosity enter the stage. Fully Bad then attempted to stop Honormosity from delivering his counteraction and all hell broke loose. A member of Fully Bad’s enterouage pushed Honormosity off stage and he dragged Full Bad.
The police got involved as a mob-style fight ensued below the stage, and the small crowd left the venue. All three artists have been detained by the police but there is a swelling over the eye of Honormosity in the aftermath of the event.
“Dancehall, in my opinion, is being watered down to attract something else,” she told WMV. “A lot of the younger artists have no respect for the older artists. If we understand who we are as a nation and as a culture and as a people, we can’t go wrong.”
This year, Sting returned to its home at Jam World Portmore where less than 1000 people attended the annual gladiator-style event. At its height in the ’90s and early 2000s, more than 20,000 people would be in attendance to see Supercat, Ninja Man, Vybz Kartel, Beenie Man, and others perform. Carlene said the promoters should count their losses now and exit stage left.
“I think they should scrap Sting. There is a shelf life on everything, and when you see it’s going downhill, stop. Leave on top. The quality of the performance is not there, and the venue just never worked. Sting was always a clash event show, so when you advertise Sting and you don’t have a major clash, which is how it started, I don’t think they will get the respect or response they deserve. The clash they have been advertising is just not worth people going,” Carlene said.
Dancehall artist Demarco who was scheduled to clash with Fully Bad at the event after a series on online back and forth commented,
“MI GLAD MI DEH A MI BED.” He posted a video asking for the return of the money he spent on the CODA live stream which cost US$19. He said he was was a no show because promoter Isaiah Laing did not pay him the $6 million that he had requested.
Carlene, who has been part of the dancehall culture since she won the inaugural staging of the Dancehall Queen contest in April 1992 says part of the problem with modern dancehall social media.
“Social media and the whole internet space have broken down a lot of valuable things, including dancehall. With Sting, I think they need to revamp, change the name of the show, so it doesn’t have that kind of stigma. This year, there were some good artists on it, but they were not coming to clash with artists, and these two clowns went on stage. They are not even big artists, so how do you get to that kind, but this is where society is heading,” she said.
This is not the first on stage fight to happen at Sting. Supercat three a bottle in the crowd while he ws clashing with Ninja Man in 1991.
Again in 2013 Vybz Kartel used the microphone as a weapon to hit Ninja Man in his nose as the two were battling on stage and a brawl ensued leaving Ninja man injured. Kartel has apologized to Ninja Man within days of the incident.
