Bounty Killer Talks About Being Outperformed by Beenie Man on Stage and Gives Advice to Younger Artistes – Watch Interview
In a recent interview, veteran deejay Bounty Killer discussed being outperformed by Beenie Man before honing his skills on the stage and advised younger artistes to do the same.
During dancehall’s prime, in the 90s, Bounty Killer was one of the genre’s most dominant deejays, releasing a slew of hits such as Fed Up, Look, and Benz & Bimma. Bounty was not only a staple at local stage shows and parties but went on to gain international success and was the first dancehall artist to perform live at the Super Bowl Half-Time Show.
However, in an interview with I Never Knew TV, Bounty shared that his stagecraft was lacking during his early career, and he was outperformed by Beenie Man multiple times as the deejay was a much more seasoned performer.
Bounty explained that he never allowed his ego to interfere with learning and was willing to take constructive criticism. The artiste honed his live performance skills by consistently rehearsing with a live band. Bounty added that he enjoyed being on stage in front of an audience, which is important to the success of the performance. Bounty then learned to master the stage by being more energetic and interactive with the audience.
The Cellular Phone deejay explained that there is a difference between a recording artiste and a performing artiste. According to Bounty, just because someone may be good at recording does not necessarily mean they will excel at performing. Bounty said that he takes his performances very seriously, as an artiste is only as good as their last performance.
“…Your last impression will be your best impression, and some people don’t look at it like that [ … ] When I’m going on stage [ … ] I’m worried about not delivering [ …] Bounty Killer is a standard, and if yuh go up there and yuh don’t do di Bounty ting, you’re not going to look right, because everybody knows Bounty’s standard,” Bounty stated.
The deejay went on to highlight the need for new artistes to learn the difference between performing a song for a recording and performing it live, as there may be key changes that need to be made.
Watch the interview below.
