By Claudia Gardner—
American rapper Ludacris has brought onto himself the wrath of Jamaicans after he erroneously labeled the island the murder capital of the world in comments about Beenie Man and Bounty Killer following their Verzuz clash on Saturday, May 23.
“I don’t know what you all just paid Bounty Killer and Beenie Man… I am just hoping that you all (did) because that’s the murder capital of the world. You gotta pay dem motherf——, or they comin’ for your neck,” Ludacris said to comedian Affion Crockett who was apparently impersonating Swizz Beatz in a video clip from his (Crockett’s) IG comedy show, that has been circulating on Instagram.
The irate Jamaicans say Ludacris’s statement was a blatant attempt by the rapper to downplay the accomplishments of the dancehall veterans through sheer jealousy, as he and his American compatriots were incapable of putting on such a magnificent performance as the Beenie and Bounty had done.
Zip FM disc jockey and music producer ZJ Sparks had posted the video clip on her Instagram page and captioned it: “actually that ain’t factual @ludacris. Jamaica is not even in the top 15. Your neighbor to the south is, followed by a slew of South American countries and your own country.”
While a few followers said they found the Act a Fool singer’s comments amusing and thought he did it in jest, the majority were up in arms. A slew of insults was thereafter aimed at him by dancehall fans, some of whom described him as a washed-up, stupid man while others said it was Ludacris’ own country which was the murder capital of the world ‘especially for black men’, and so that is where his focus ought to be.
“Brite dis ole faaat brite. A di wrong battle him pick a dat him fi know… Hating because we out did all the verzuz,” an upset queen_b_braidz said, while mzzjulez ranted: “A caah my country dutty Luda a talk bout. Badmind him badmind cause nobody neva watch fi him clash!! Come gwope!!!”
Others contended that Jamaica has no history of mass killings and so should in no way be referred to as a murder capital, by the artiste whose given name is Christopher Bridges.
“He is not very knowledgeable about this subject… He shouldn’t not speak on it… He so wrong, how can he compare Jamaica to a place that has so many mad people doing mass killings, because they felt like it?” one female follower said.
“We nuh worse dan fi unuh country, 2 man might drop out here but unuh have man a shot up a whole school, hospitals etc killing multiple people. Suh we don’t have d murder capital of d wurl,” zaddyqw33n said.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime ranks Jamaica 5th in the world for the highest homicide rates. El Salvador, Honduras, Venezuela, and the Virgin Islands take the top spots.
Beenie Man and Bounty Killer who were the only Jamaicans to feature in Verzuz since it started in March. Their battle has been touted as the best in the series so far with an electrifying showcase viewed live by more than 470,000 people from Jamaica and around the world.
The clashes, which started in March, provide a platform for musical heavyweights with a catalog of 20 or more hit songs to square off, hit for hit live on Instagram.
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