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WORLD CLASH 2003 10-11-2003 NYC 2003 by Eyewitness
Yow! Live & direct from World-Clash 2003 we are lucky to have our man Eyewitness inna New York to give us the run-down. Here is what happened. The line-up this year somehow failed to impress much, as most of the high-caliber yard sounds (Jaro, Odyssey) were missing and even tough NYC stalwarts as Matterhorn & Agony were not invited/did not qualify. At least Mighty Crown from Japan were back. The cover was $50 again and Bounty Killer hosted/Mc'd the event alone (Ele didn't show up-they were supposed to do it together). ROUND 1 (15 minutes each-no elimination) Poison
Dart from Florida kicked things off after qualifying for World Clash
just last week by winning the U.S. Cup Clash in the Bronx. Stating
that the trophy would not leave the US this year, selector Kirky C
played a number of foundation tunes. Artists like Sizzla & Luciano
on riddims like Hypocrites. It was an ok round for them but nothing
spectacular. Mighty
Crown came in like a raging storm, drawing instant forwards for their
wicked speeches. They played a SERIOUS first round featuring nuff
Cocoa Tea combinations (with Spragga & Bounty I believe), as well
as some classic Bounty Killers. A WICKED start for the Japanese, who
clearly showed that they meant business. One
Love from Rome were next and they surprised a lot of people, as they
played quite well. The MC's had strong Italian accents, which werent
too pleasant to my ears, but at least you could understand them. They
began with a Mafioso type of intro that had NYC weak. One Love went
down the foundation-lane as well , playing nuff Sizzla; maybe every
second tune was a Sizzla and the people showed their appreciation.
Good round for the Italians. The Trinis of Matsimela Sound for some reason failed to connect with the crowd this year, after such a good performance in 2002. I thought I recognized many of the same dubs they played last year: King Kong & Capleton didn't get them nowhere & the MC simply wasn't able to get much vibes going. Basically a flop. The
only Jamaican sound in 2003, Black Kat was led by Panther. They kicked
off with Yami Bolo, followed by George Nooks and pretty much cruised
down foundation-lane as well. It was their regular set of dubs-nuttin
new, nuttin too special. Mediocre. The defending World-Clash champion from 2002 Canada's Rebel Tone were last and Newby made some excuses about visa and rae rae for not coming to NY more often since his victory in order to defend his sound. He was having SEVERE problems with the cd-unit (as Rebel Tone is a cd sound that plays all of its dubs off cd), causing him to play many dubs for far over a minute each. Newby was in trouble and his first round pretty much flopped. Mighty Crown was determined to be the winner of round one.
ROUND
2
(10 MINUTES, 1 elimination) Poison
Dart came back explaining they had only 3 days to gather some extra
ammunition for World Clash and therefore didn't have many custom-built
specials but I think that it is NEVER very smart to make excuses during
a clash-just cut and go through star! Focus on your strengths and
try not to draw any attention to your weaknesses. You waan win, dontcha?!!!
Anyway: they ran Barrington, a Reggie Stepper I believe, Sizzlas and
a Shabba, but Kirky, again, did not really move the crowd. After running some more foundation, Mighty Crown realized that it was time to shift gears and started rinsing some brand-new tracks on Coolie Dance,Bad Company and Fiesta. They ROCKED NYC & got a HUGE forward for a custom-built Beenie Man & Ms.Thing combination on the Fiesta riddim about how they kill the other 5 sounds at World-Clash. Simply wicked & it seemed like the Japanese were reaching for the trophy again. One Love came in counteracting a speech from Poison Dart who claimed that "Nuff battyman a come from Italy". One Love replied that all the battyman they find in Italy, they gather them and ship them out to Florida to keep Poison Dart company. They saw how successful Mighty Crown were with the new tunes selection and burned off quite a few of their own, the highlight being Sean Paul's "Like Glue" and the same Beenie Man/Ms.Thing combo but cut differently to effectively counteract the Crown tune. Another good round for the Italians. Black Kat was determined to be the winner of round two and Rebel Tone, the defending world-champion, was eliminated.
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ROUND 3 (2 eliminations) Although there were still 5 sounds left, it was pretty clear that this World-Clash was all about Crown, One Love and Black Kat. Poison Dart played yet another unspectacular round and pretty much lost it. People were not into them/taking them serious, making it hard to even remember tunes or anything worth mentioning. Mighty
Crown were second and rinsed some unusual specials by Beres and Barrington.
Somehow they lost a bit of their hype and werent connecting as they
did before. I thought the round was ok for them, especially once they
featured some HUGE hip-hop specials by 50 Cents and Little John ("I
don't give a fuck Remix") plus a Little John/Elephant combination. One
Love continued throwing down their favorite artists:they had infinite
Anthony B's and Sizzlas, complimented by decent speech, yet somehow
the air was outta the clash at this point and it was to be seen as to
who could tek it to a higher level again. Matsimela
claimed they could tek it easy as Poison Dart and One Love played back
tunes and should therefore get disqualified. Still NY wasn't into them
at all. They blended Buzz and some foundation:pretty much the same as
last year and from the crowd's reaction it was pretty clear that they
would get eliminated, as neither Poison Dart or One Love were likely
to get disqualified, as the dubs were cut in different ways (on different
riddims). Black
Kat managed to tek advantage of the fact that everyone had been slacking
this round so far and Panther came storming in with big statements bout
how Mighty Crown have whole heapa bling bling to buy any dubplate they
want, yet its talent, not money fi win sound-clash. He continued now
he was going to play HIS 50 Cents and ran a Garnet Silk, causing Amazura
to go BIONIC !!! He mixed some classic Black Kat selections with some
other material and it was apparent that he won Round Three. Poison Dart and Matsimela got eliminated, while Black Kat won the round, to take a 2-1 lead over Mighty Crown.
ROUND 4 (5 minute 45 round) If Black Kat won this round they would take the trophy. If Mighty Crown won, they would go dub for dub with Black Kat in a 5th round. It was not clear as to what would happen if One Love won though. So for Round Four no dubplates could be played, only regular 45's. Mighty Crown came in and freakin' RIPPED it with a whole heapa foundation by Jacob Miller, Bob Marley and Peter Tosh. They turned the heat on One Love and tore up Amazura! Next
was One Love and the sound-system's owner stepped outta the shadows
and took over the mic, claiming he's been listening to reggae music
for more than 20 years. One Love then went on their own rampage to BURN
UP Amazura, getting the place weak with vintage selections by Marley,
Tosh and Wailer. I thought they even topped Mighty Crown, they were
simply HOT !!! Last,
Black Kat was up and Panther was confident bout his victory. He also
played VERY WELL, but reached nowhere near either One Love or Crown.
Still NY people were going crazy, even though Panther played a number
of tunes that NYC had already heard on dubplate earlier. Did this count
as playing back a tune ? If so, Panther played back at least 3 and should
get disqualified. Amazura didn't care or were unaware. Somehow
Black Kat was declared the winner of Round Four and of World Clash 2003,
while nuff people were chanting "tune fi tune". Chin then
explained Black Kat had won the most rounds so people should be fair
and treat them as winners. If he had given the round to Mighty Crown
and they had won the dub-fi-dub, word on the streets and the net would
have been that Chin had fixed the clash for Crown to win, which is actually
true. Panther WAS wicked all night (with the exception of his initial
crying), yet I'm still vexed that his 45 round won, as it was clearly
worse than either Crown's or One Love's. It would have been better if
he had killed Crown ina dub-f-dub. Still: in my eyes One Love took this
round-then it would have been Black Kat:2; Mighty Crown:1; and One Love:1
and Black Kat should have been the winner without going to the tune
fi tune anyways. On
a parting note, I think that Bounty Killer got the people prejudiced
against Mighty Crown with his anti-Japanese rae rae bout reggae being
a Jamaican thing and such. It is a good idea to do away with the celebrity
mc's and judges, as they DO have the power to influence the crowd's
opinions through their status as dancehall icons. Plus Elephant's performance
in 2002 (also culminating in some nasty anti-Japanese comments) was
rather poor, as much as I enjoy the energy god as a performer. Personally,
I missed Jaro, Odyssey and Matterhorn: three of the biggest sounds in
the world and I certainly hope them to be present next year. Eyewitness
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