Boasy Boy Floyd praises Notorious International for comeback win

MC for the Reggae Sumfest Global Sound Clash 2024 on Wednesday night, Boasy Boy Floyd, said winners and "underdog" competitor Notorious International fought a brave fight to achieve the win.

Fans were in for a treat as Jamaican sounds Bodyguard and Code Red alongside three international sounds - Dynamq (South Sudan), Warrior Sound (Germany) and Notorious International (Japan) - went tune for tune.

Normally, a sound clash would include a panel of judges who score each round. But this year, the decision was solely up to the quality of play from the participants and the audiences' responses, which was conducted by Floyd.

"So after each round of elimination, I would ask the crowd who they thought took that round; and with the show of hands, a decision is made. If there's a situation where two sounds got like most hands 'not to be eliminated', then we'll go for a 'tiebreaker' which [means] that they play one song each, and after that then we'll determine how we move on," he explained. "But at the end of the clash, I was very much happy that Notorious came out on top because they fought a gallant fight," he told THE WEEKEND STAR.

Floyd said everyone thought Notorious International was "down and out" in the dub-for-dub selections but one mistake from their opponent revived the sound and reignited the crowd. He said that Bodyguard was leading Notorious International by three rounds to nil.

"From dem get back one and made it 3-1, it was history in the making after that," he said.

Floyd, who has hosted several other national sound clashes, advised that when a sound has the crowd in a frenzy, they have to keep the momentum.

"All the songs that you are playing in that round should be high energetic songs, songs that are custom-cut, sending shades and 'firing shots' at the other sound, because this was the final round in a dub-fi-dub style," he shared. Floyd noted that this final round was the "most critical" segment of the clash, where the sounds would generate the most points, and, in most cases, eliminate all prior losses. He commended the selectors for being very apologetic whenever they breached the no profanity rule, and lauded the security personnel for their professionalism and "good mannerism they displayed to everyone, irrespective of race, colour or class". The clash concluded at 4 a.m. on Thursday.

Floyd stated that overall, the Global Sound Clash is "one that went down in the history book".

"Everybody was happy with the decision and it was influence-free, no cass-cass, no disagreements or quarrelling and all the sounds that were eliminated, came back on stage to cheer on another sound of their choice in the final - everyone accepted defeat gracefully."