Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer
Scringy (left), the Bass Odyssey selector, celebrates with members of Bass Odyssey at 'Death Before Dishonour 5'. - Herbert McKenis/Freelance Photographer
WESTERN BUREAU:
EVEN BEFORE the sound was officially crowned champion of 'Death Before Dishonour 5', their selector, Squingy, gave himself a title. "Me a de Michael Jordan a clash!" he said, to howls from the thousands of bloodthirsty fans who crammed Pier 1 for the annual sound system slaughter.
And in many ways he was. Bass Odyssey played first; defending champions and long-standing rivals Black Kat the last of six sound systems, with Mighty Crown from Japan, One Love from Italy, Freddy (formerly of Kilamanjaro) and Tony Matterhorn in between. From the opening round, Squingy went high into the stage rigging to introduce his dub plates.
And it was from that perch that he slam dunked Capleton's Invasion to elevate Bass Odyssey's third round from very good to simply unbeatable.
HISTORY MADE
It was also a 'threepeat', as Bass Odyssey made history by taking three rounds straight, the clash ending much earlier than usual at a little after 5:00 a.m. Much like Jordan, Squingy showed that after a break his skills were very much still there, fancy footwork and all. Starting out in a black suit with pink shirt, then changing to a number, Squingy was as dapper as 'the one' and even though his head was not shaved, his hair was cut low and his body tall and lean enough to bring Jordan to mind.
But the cellular phone earpiece he wore throughout the night was reminiscent of Bounty Killer and it was the 'Ghetto Gladiator' to whom Bass Odyssey turned to end the third round with the musical equivalent of an atomic bomb. "Oonu bring me b-mb-cl--t trophy come! A tree roun' dat!" Squingy declared, confident of victory even before the informalities of voting.
And it was, although the victory was closer than the 'threepeat' would have made it appear. With the voting for winners of the rounds and who should be eliminated left up to the audience, Mighty Crown played a fantastic third round, leaning heavily on hip-hop dub plates from people like Lil John. They ended with selector Sammy T, who, along with Tony Matterhorn, had earlier been cut in the head in a lone bottle-throwing incident.
The first round had been extremely close between Black Kat and Bass Odyssey, the bottle throwing incident that drew blood from the heads of Matterhorn and Sammy T coming after Bass Odyssey took the stage for round two.
LAUGHTER AFTER THE 'LYME'
Organiser of the clash, Chin, had to take the reigns of the event and explained "oonu have to understand that the selectors up here are all friends. No watch de suck dis an' suck dat. They are all friends".
And it was Tony Matterhorn who summed up the event, as the selectors who had cursed and slung sexual slurs at one another all night gathered on stage to laugh and congratulate the champion.
"Yu kill de pussycat!" he said to Squingy, as Pink 'The War Tanker' Panther of the dethroned Black Kat came on stage.
And just as Jordan would often credit Scottie Pippen for Chicago Bulls victories, Squingy presented selector Mark from Bass Odyssey to the audience as "de wickedes' ting behin' two turntable".
See The Weekend Star for round by round details of 'Death Before Dishonour 5'.
