Beenie Man's 'Untold Story'

Krista Henry, Staff Reporter, the Jamaica Star online

Fans of the self-proclaimed King of the Dancehall Moses 'Beenie Man' Davis will get the chance to read his life story in the forthcoming biography Who Am I? The Untold Story of Beenie Man.

Written by Jamaican journalist Milton Wray, the sensational biography is scheduled for release in Jamaica in July, just in time for Reggae Sumfest. Wray spent 11 years documenting and researching the scandals and untold past of the popular figure in the more than 400-page biography. When Wray spoke with the STAR he described the work as non-stop drama, action and revelations.

"Beenie Man has a very fascinating story. His entire life is filled with drama from before he was born to recent times. He has not led an ordinary life. Everything he does is extraordinary ... I knew his story would be action-packed and entertaining. People love him, he's appealing and endearing, there is a fierce public interest in his life," Wray said.

Birth to stardom
Written in a story format, the work begins when Beenie Man's mother met his father, continues with his birth, chronicles his childhood, rise to stardom, his career, the public breakup with D'Angel and his recent tax woes.

Having met the artists on numerous occasions Wray contacted Beenie Man in 1994 about the novel. According to Wray, Beenie Man was very receptive to the work, doing extensive interviews and providing never before seen pictures. Wray took a sabbatical from Jamaican journalism to live and do research in New York City for more than a year.

While in the United States, he conducted interviews and collected vast amounts of information on Beenie Man and his international impact on the music business. While writing the book in Jamaica, Wray conducted interviews with relatives, friends, associates, music business personnel, rivals and the girlfriends of the artiste.

For Wray, the biography held a journalistic appeal for him and he says that Beenie Man's story can inspire ghetto youth. The writer promises an unvarnished view of the Doctor, as while Beenie Man did cooperate for the novel, he did not approve the manuscript and has not seen a page of the work.

"The intention was not to put out a public relations piece for the artiste. The facts are presented as they occurred, whether or not Beenie Man likes those facts. He has led a very controversial life, and he acknowledges that, he recently told me as much. I believe he is prepared for whatever revelations may come from this book," Wray said.

Revealing book
According to Wray, readers can expect a biography they will find hard to put down with never-before revealed details about Beenie Man.

He said, "Beenie Man is so candid, no airs, there's no pretense about him, what you see is what you get. He's such a consistent performer. People have fallen in love with him and nothing can stop them from loving him."

Who Am I? The Untold Story of Beenie Man will be distributed in North America, the European Union, the CARICOM region and Japan before the end of the year. For its Asian release the work will be translated into Japanese.

original article

Gays didn't stop My Tour

(The following is the first and second parts of a three-part interview done with Bounty Killer.)

A cross and angry Rodney 'Bounty Killer' Price spoke out for the first time about his recent European tour that saw three shows being cancelled ,allegedly because of gay activist groups.

It was reported that gay human rights groups had coordinated a European-wide campaign to halt Bounty's Deadly Alliance tour of the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Italy, England and Switzerland, and were successful in stopping concerts in Bradford and Birmingham, England, and another in Essen, Germany.

Successful tour
However, Bounty Killer in an exclusive interview with THE STAR says on the contrary, his European tour was very much a success and that gay activist groups were only exaggerating that they were successful in stopping a number of the shows.

"It was a successful tour in terms of meeting and greeting and connecting with the people. The tour lasted for four weeks, we did a week in London and then three weeks in Europe. They (gay activists) cancelled like three concerts out of 21, so all yuh hear dem a talk bout gay dis and gay dat, they were just exaggerating, they always try to exaggerate bout they cancel show," Bounty said.

A violence thing
He continued, "Di show in Birmingham, it was a violence thing that was going on in Birmingham in the black community and they (promoters) were feeling like it was very dangerous to try and get Bounty and Mavado in dis place at this moment, it wasn't any gay-bashing thing because if that was the case, we couldn't go in London."

"London is the heart of it, yuh understand, so if it was a gay problem, why Birmingham would have a problem and London don't have a problem? London show is the biggest one and that's the most successful one, dat's di one they would have tried to stop, not the little one down Birmingham. So it was just a violence thing in Birmingham and they came 'bout it's a gay thing. Even di concert wey dem claim dem cancel a Germany, a Munich, dem cancel di show inna di day an wi have to guh to court di afternoon and won," Bounty said.

So despite these minor setbacks, Bounty says, "the tour went well, but most people never want to see it a success, but it was a success ... yea because they expect that we were going to get turn back like Sizzla an all these things, they try but it jus neva work."

Artistes Need To Unite
Bounty says he is also calling on dancehall artistes to "be more unified in the fight against gays, ca' if wi nuh unite, wi will neva win dis battle."

"The artistes, they are not for the music, they are for the success, and the wealth and all this excitement and super stardom. Ca' for instance, if there wasn't a Bounty, a Beenie, a Buju, a Ele, a Capleton, a Sizzla an it was jus a Kartel an a Mavado, where di music would be? Or if it was jus a Bounty an a Beenie an no Mavado an no Kartel an no Buju an Capleton, wey di music woulda be?"

"When these artistes see other artistes going through problems like what happening to Sizzla now, yuh know nuff a dem a laugh, like ... Beenie, mi know him a laugh. 'Cause .... sey dem ban Bounty an Mavado an dem call him (Beenie) fi do di show an him run gone pon it. How you mus ban my fellow Jamaican an den you guh bond wid dem?" Bounty questioned.

According to Bounty, some of these artistes are not concerned about their culture,"these artistes nuh care if yuh nuh love Jamaica ... 'cause dem only a do dis fi come model pon Killa, dem jus waan have more money dan Bounty Killa, dem nuh business if Jamaica sink tomorrow."

CD quality isn't good enough

a topic that interests me something to listen to... even if it is compressed...

"It's stepped down from tape to digital to compressed digital, so people are now listening to a Xerox of a Polaroid of a photograph of a painting."

the article can be found on The Audiophiliac by Steve Guttenberg.