Squash ready to clash with Alkaline - Manager says ball in Vendetta’s court

The new, hot faces of dancehall have been jeered in recent months for being nothing but “Instagram badman,” shying away from lyrical battles on stage unlike their forebears. Vendetta boss Alkaline and 6ix frontman Squash are the latest to go for blows, with fans bleaching online for the next track to drop. In a recent interview, selector Ricky Trooper described the new wave of artistes as “cowards” for not putting their lyrical skills to the test offline.

“People waan see confrontation, but it hard fi happen cause all who have beef with each other, dem a coward, dem a social media warriors,” he said. “The man dem just deh pon social media and a give it to one another and a drop song, but when dem fi physically go and deal with it dem nah do it, so mi call dem coward. Mi naw talk bout Squash and Alkaline alone, look pon all di Masicka war dem, and all dem war deh a come dung. Anytime two a dem a beef, and di time come now fi dem deh pon a show, is like dis yah man nah tek di show wid di next man...” Trooper continued.

But, according to Squash’s manager, Junior ‘Heavy D’ Fraser, his artiste has no issues taking it to the main stage with Alkaline. Getting Alkaline on board, he says, is the problem.

“I think, at the end of the day, Squash woulda willing fi go pon stage with him, but I don’t think Alkaline woulda willing fi go,” he told The STAR. “Mi nuh think him (Alkaline) woulda ever go pon a Sting stage go dweet, no matter who a di other person him a go clash with, him nah go think they are an opposition.”

Heavy D, also a former promoter of the island’s premier clash event, Sting, said that while the online space does not compare to the live event, it still keeps fans engaged.

‘The phone is like the stage show’

“Sting was the only place you had that aggressive stage clash, the clashes online nuh so fierce, but dem nice in certain ways and excite the people,” he said. “The only difference is, the phone is like the stage show, that’s where everybody is, and everybody in the world can be involved in it at the same time. It a work because that is what dem have right now, cause there is no other platform for it.”

He added that it also proves more beneficial for some artistes.

“When you’re on stage clashing, some of the things weh you use online yuh cyan seh that onstage cause yaa go get boo,” he said. “If yuh seh something wrong bout somebody mother, sister or brother, it can go two ways; yuh can either get a big ‘forward’ or big boo, depending on what you say. So it end up seh you can get weh wid it online, but not on stage.”