Golden award for Beenie and Bounty
Dancehall stalwart Beenie Man has expressed great joy as he anticipates his ‘special award’ for his contribution to the musical landscape at tonight’s Reggae Gold Award and the 2024 Jamaica Music Museum Hall of Fame Inductions. The event will be hosted at its new venue, at the National Indoor Sports Centre in Kingston, at 7 p.m.
“When you do your work and you’re being awarded for it, you have to feel good about yourself and it’s a very great feeling,” the Sim Simma artiste shared with THE STAR yesterday.
The dancehall giant along with Bounty Killer will be recognised with a special award for their impactful and long-standing work in the field of music.
“[Bounty] and I have been working so hard for so many years and when somebody look at your work and see the body of work that you put down, and is giving you an award for it, that means they actually respect and love the work that you’ve been doing. So it’s a great feeling and I’m grateful. It’s not like yuh a guh sit down and seh, ‘Yes, dem did affi gi wi,’ so it’s supm that you have to ‘apprecilove’ – thank you to everyone who is behind giving me this award, I really appreciate it,” the deejay said.
The King of the Dancehall, whose Simma album was nominated in the Grammy’s Best Reggae Album category in 2024, said his longevity and relevance in today’s musical space is due to the quality music he produces.
“Dancehall has been evolving over the years and the music change sometimes, but it always come back to its original foundation of the music. So I like when people accept this quality foundation and accept foundation artistes like me and Bounty Killer, and giving us this award will be another great achievement for ‘I and I’,” he said.
As the top performer and prolific deejay looks forward into topping more awards, he advised his fellow colleagues on the ‘musical ingredients’ to walk a similar path in music in acquiring a global impact.
“Work hard in the studio and work even harder on stage so people can recognise your stage performances and also yuh music. Suh when yuh go in the studio, just mek certain seh yuh always put together a good body of work and people can relate to it; and project the same energy on stage while ensuring that everybody enjoy demself – don’t just make music and perform for yourself,” he advised.
“As an artiste, yuh cya mek ‘corna music’ yuh affi mek world music. I can credit that for my longevity in music because when you’ve been a star for as long as I am and yuh have two and five-year old kids a come to you [asking] for an autograph or a picture, that means you’re not just catering to one demography but the old, young, baby a enjoy yuh music and it’s a great feeling,” he added.