Words by Jesse Serwer

Bounty Killer is dancehall’s king of beef. It’s fitting that the man who calls himself the Warlord (and who has recently revived his longstanding and somewhat career-defining feud with Beenie Man) would find synergy with Mobb Deep, a group whose career has been similarly colored by static with other artists. The brand-new tune “Dead Man’s Shoes,” featured here last week, isn’t the first time these generals have joined forces on a war chant: Bounty first linked with Prodigy and Havoc 13 years ago, on “Dead Zone” from his Next Millenium album. In fact, Bounty has collaborated with and featured on songs by more rappers than almost any other major dancehall artist. (How ahead of the game has Bounty been with this hip-hop stuff? He had DJ Khaled do the intro to one of his albums way back in 2002—did you know who Khaled was back then?) And for the most part, these connections have been rock solid. Seeing how Bounty has turned up in almost every one of my Heds and Dreds columns, from those on Smif N Wessun to our latest with Special Ed, it seemed only right to turn the tables and spotlight him this time.