By Shirvan Williams—
Veteran dancehall artiste Beenie Man’s already illustrious career is experiencing a revival since his appearance alongside fellow veteran artiste Bounty Killer on the May 23 Instagram Live Verzuz series.
The battle had over one billion impressions and according to organizer Swiss Beatz is the most successful installation of the series so far. Following the show, both Beenie Man and Bounty Killer recorded their best streaming figures of 2020.
According to Billboard Magazine and data from Nielsen Music/MRC, Beenie Man pulled 622,000 U.S. on-demand streams on May 24 while Bounty Killer had about 256,000 registered clicks. Previous to the online battle, Bounty had not yet broken the 300,000 mark for the year.
Now fans can’t seem to get enough of Beenie. His Best of Beenie Man compilation has made a reappearance on the Billboard Reggae Albums Chart at number nine.
The album, which is just about two decades old, was last on the chart in April 2001 and peaked at number four in December 2000.
Best of Beenie Man was released in November 2000 by Shocking Vibes Productions/VP Records and featured some of the Girls Dem Sugar most loved tracks like Bookshelf, Let Him Go, Slam, Romie, and the mega-hit Dancehall Queen.
The Verzuz battle has definitely given the artiste a renewed dancehall life as his last appearance on the chart was in 2016 with Unstoppable, which peaked at number three.
His resurgence has been growing steadily and the deejay recently launched a new single called Do You Want To Be That Guy. A song he created after the Verzuz battle when he used those words as he confronted a Jamaican Constabulary officer who seemed intent on stopping the show.
Since the show, Beenie has received 906,000 US streams total, which represents a 187.5 percent increase from his 315,000 streams just two days preceding the event.
According to the statistics, his top five streaming songs started with Girls Dem Sugar with 219,000 clicks between the 23rd and 24th, next was Who Am I with 75,000 clicks, King of The Dancehall with 64,000, Dude with 62,000, and Romie came in fifth with 48,000 rounds out his top five.
Bounty Killer also experienced a significant jump in his numbers. His body of music received 367,000 US on-demand streams on the 23rd and 24th. Before the show, he was just at 94,000. Since the show, he’s had a surge of 291 percent. His top five according to the stats were: Living Dangerously followed by Look, then Benz & Bimma, next was Suspense and Worthless Bwoy came in fifth.
Beenie Man has already begun to cash in on his newly sparked popularity as he recently launched a clothing line focus on his famous line “Do you really want to be that guy.” Both deejays have worked tirelessly over the years to create a global platform for dancehall and were probably two of the most popular deejays in the nineties. It seems only fair that they are now able to reap some rewards.
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