Code Red conquers World
JAMAICAN sound system Code Red emerged victorious in Sunday’s World Clash: The End held at the O2 Academy in Birmingham, England.
Code Red’s Chris Dymond believes preparation and creativity were the factors that separated his outfit from the eight other ‘sounds’.
“What gave us the edge over the other competitors was creativity and preparation. Also, we believed in our craft 100 per cent and we a yaad man, straight,” said Chris Dymond, who, along with team member DJ Lank, represented for the 21-year-old Kingstonbased sound.
Code Red was the only sound from the Caribbean region.
Chris Dymond said that winning World Clash was a huge achievement for any sound.
“It’s one of the greatest feelings in the world. This is like the Grammys for the selector/sound man. It is the highest achievement a sound can get, to be the world champion, especially since this was the last one,” he told the Jamaica Observer.
“Winning this shows that a lot of determination and hard work can pay off big. We’ve always been one of the most talented sounds in Jamaica and now the world got a chance to witness this,” he continued.
Promoted by Irish and Chin, World Clash: The End featured eight other sound systems, Mystic (World Champion), Observer Supa Power (winner of UK Rumble 2019), Klymaxx (winner of Canada Rumble 2019), Stereo 5 (winner of USA Rumble 2019), Rodem Cyclone (winner of Japan Rumble 2019), Empire Sound (UK Wild Card), Dynamiq (Africa) and Warrior Sound (Europe Wild Card) all competing for the ultimate World Clash trophy and bragging rights.
The sounds competed in five rounds with Code Red and Dynamiq advancing to the final round.
According to Chris Dymond, the dub plate from a veteran reggae singer helped them on their way to victory.
“It was our famous anthem, Sound Bwoy, Go Home To Yuh Momma dub plate by Cocoa Tea that sealed Dynamiq’s fate. This was very hard for us to represent our island as some of our own artistes were trying to charge us up to US$2,500 to get a dub plate, which is wicked. And even when we explained that we were repping the country, some of the artistes stop taking our calls and stopped replying to message. Some of them were sell-outs because some of these same artistes voiced dub plates for the same sounds we were competing against in the clash. We weren’t asking for free tunes, just for them to help us rep the country and reggae music properly and to charge a price that is fair,” he said.
Asked what his takeaway from the competition was, Chris Dymond said: “That reggae music is powerful and just needs to be nurtured and cared for.”
The selector saluted several entertainers who supported the vision of the sound system.
“Big up to a few real artistes like Mr Lexx, Bounty Killer, Wicker Man, Buju Banton, Kip Rich, Hawkeye, Twin of Twins, Jah Mason, Romain Virgo, Protoje (who voiced our dubs from a hospital bed), Lila Iké, Shaggy, Mavado, Christopher Ellis, and a few more. God bless them. Also, big up to Jazzy T, Tony Matterhorn, Nasheen Fire and Tall Man of Di Unit and some elder selectors who reached out to us and offered words of advice,” Chris Dymond added.