Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer

Left: The 'Queen' was in a militant mode during her set. Right: The lyrical Assassin did not miss the mark. - Natahniel Stewart photos

Coming up to Guinness Sting 2007, which ended at close to 7:30 a.m. yesterday at the Jam Word centre, Portmore, it had been made clear that, due to sponsorship interests, lyrics advocating the ultimate punishment for homosexuality were not to be tolerated.

At the final, in a series of free road shows leading up to the huge Boxing Day event, held outside Ken's Wildflower Lounge, Port Henderson Road, Portmore, on Friday, December 14, the performances were cut short when two performers disobeyed the rule, although MC Nuffy had explained the situation.

In a story published in The Gleaner on Wednesday, December 19, under the headline 'Gay lyrics 'sting' in Portmore', it was reported that after the first infraction by Ras Fraser, Nuffy said "all my show whe no have no sponsor yu can sey anyting". With sponsored shows, though, "the sponsor have suppen inna de paper when de promoter come to dem. If yu breach de contrac' yu no get de res' a de money," Nuffy said, pointing out that if there was no sponsor, there was no concert. "If yu no like certain man, yu no haffi chat 'bout dem," Nuffy said then.

However, when the real thing came on Boxing Day, it did not take long for the rule to be tossed out, the huge audience reacting very favourably to the lyrical advocacy of death to homosexuals.

When Harry Toddler demanded just after 1 a.m. that "all who a shot ban tun on yu lighta", some strong language in the mix, he was quickly called off stage and the MC reminded the audience that "as we mentioned earlier, we are trying our best to make this the cleanest Guinness Sting ever, so we are going to cut out the profanities".

But in the band change break that followed, in which Bodyguard played, the selector said "when we sey ban fi dead, we see people a frowns. All a de people who believe all ccman an' maama man fi dead, two han' inna de air". And the hands duly went up, the selector dropping Vybz Kartel's determined "we naa ride pon Karl by fi wear John Paul Gotti" to enthusiastic support.

After Ninja Man's performance, coming up to 2 a.m., Fantan Mojah stated at the beginning of his showing that "Jam World, me sey no fish cyaa march inna Jamaica" and Warrior King did not get to the 'gay' to complete the line "Rasta man a bun out all ..." in Virtuous Woman. From there, though, for several performers the gloves were off.

Going up to 3 a.m. Mikey Pelpa said he had been told that certain lyrics were to be left out, but "dem haffi go kill me tonight" and brought out his lyrical gun for the gay community. However, he noted "see dem a tell me fe come off ya now" and, after another lyric, asked "me fi come off?", to which the audience said an enthusiastic 'yes'.

Assassin showed his scorn, but did not advocate death, Bounty Killer declared that "we are vertical straight" and his "teflon bullet a whe we len' fish" moved the audience mightily.

Coming down the morning stretch to the close, Lutan Fyah put a lyrical bullet on a funny guy, Chuck Fendah extended his gashing and lighting to gays, with Queen Ifrica and Turbulence among those expressing disapproval of homosexuality without the lyrically deadly component.

Lutan Fyah in a burning mood.

Chuck Fendah gashed and lit gays.