Words by Jesse Serwer—
If you follow dancehall, you’ve probably heard about Bounty Killer’s recent comments about Tommy Lee Sparta, and his “Gothic Dancehall” style. Lee has now issued his response in the form of the new single “Goathead,” going after the Grung Gaad with a statement even stronger than we’d imagined. Tommy Lee’s emergence as dancehall’s hot-button artist has been swift and, up until now, he’s avoided clashing. In fact, when I met him this summer he intimated to me that the intent of his demonic lyrics is to serve as a warning for other artists to stay far from him, rather than to be taken literally. It will be interesting to see if he’s cut out for this clashing thing, when Bounty inevitably responds. Now that all eyes in dancehall are on him, many people will be coming for him, even his own camp.
On a visual note, we can’t help but be a little disappointed in the look of “Goathead” after Lee’s attention-grabbing “Psycho” video: hopefully his upcoming video for “Uncle Demon,” which we hear is set to premiere Friday, will offer more to look at, and talk about. What do you think? Is Tommy Lee cut out for clashing, or should he stick to threatening anonymous foes? Tommy is perhaps the most divisive artist to come from Jamaica since Kartel, with people’s opinions on him running as cold as they do hot. Is all the attention and hype focused on him warranted?