The sight of Beenie Man and Vybz Kartel on the Jamworld stage battling a barrage of boos this morning underlined the mood of the nation since Sumfest - that the majority has definitely swung to Alliance/Gully.
In the wake of Killer's lyrical bullets that have pierced Vybz Kartel's armour and delivered crushing blows in recent days, the Champions in Action crowd was anticipating the 5 Star General's performance and he did not disappoint. This show will go down in history as Bounty Killer and Mavado had the crowd in utter pandemonium at around 7am Sunday morning.
During their performance Vybz Kartel could take it no longer and left Beenie on stage to face the boos alone, and despite the boos growing in decibels and Beenie's attempts to draw out the show and force the people to tire and leave, not one person walked out of Jamworld until they got what they came for: the Alliance in full effect.
While Kartel's amateurish ability to perform with live band Ruff Kut was exposed, Anger Management band provided the energy that drove the Alliance's memorable appearance. It was a bad night for the Gaza crew as earlier Blak Ryno and Jah Vinci were also soundly booed and was a stark contrast to the constant huge forwards that greeted every word and melody from both Bounty Killer and Mavado. It evoked memories of Bounty Killer's 96 Sting performances in the sun-hot that was as fiery as the morning temperature.
During their set Mavado called on stage Chase Cross, Flex and Einstein, who have also stolen the march on the Gaza young acts with their current dancehall hits, and the forwards didn't drop a notch as they proved that the Alliance hit factory, that ironically gave birth to Vybz Kartel, shows no sign of slowing.
As the crowd streamed out of Jamworld triumphant Alliance/Gully fans were in loud and buoyant mood. From the sound of the disgruntled Gaza fans, head bowed and stride slowed, coupled with the less than lukewarm response to Kartel's reply to Killer's diss songs, seem to be returning to from whence they came - Alliance.
Earlier Beenie Man seemed to be very aware of what was to unfold at Champions in Action as he approached the Alliance management at Jamworld with a plea for Mavado to appear on his Sizzle show next week. With the chemistry between him and Kartel fizzling more than sizzling after this outing it seems unlikely the two of them will take the stage together again. Kartel will not want to be wounded again by the boos that were initially brought on by Beenie.
All in all it was another great staging of Champions in Action by the Presidential Click and the children of West Kingston will benefit from the generosity of the organisation at the upcoming back-to-school treat. As Beenie and Kartel have a week to regroup for Sizzle this coming weekend in Kingston, Mavado is off to Japan and the Killer moves to another favourite Alliance stomping ground, the UK.