Sizzla Kalonji’s Rise to the Occasion IV held last Saturday at Temple Hall Estate in Stony Hill, in celebration of his 32nd birthday, was indeed an occasion to be remembered, as it may have broken a record time for a stage show to run through its many artistes.
Although a successful and incident-free event, the warning and mention of the time constraint was like a recurring decimal throughout the night’s proceeding.
After Turbulence took the stage in a burst of energy at around 1:05 a.m. declaring, “I could have been one of the most notorious”, and being recalled to perform the crowd’s favourite Ex-Girlfriend, MC GT Taylor announced, “because of the time constraint thing, the 2 o’ clock thing, we were told to just go straight to the bands.”
Massive audience
At this point in the show, the sound system was about to play for the massive audience inside of the Temple Hall Estate but, instead, they had to be sidestepped and the artistes continued to perform onstage.
Natural Black stepped up quickly to declare that his girl was Far From Reality, but paused to get a burning issue off his chest.
“Di cultural artiste dem nah live good, dem a spread bear positive message an a live fup,” he declared before jumping back into his set onstage.
At 1:30 am, Judgement Yard artiste Junie Platinum came and chanted “Jah is my keeper”, while Lady G asked “whe di woman dem whe know sey nuh gyal cyan tek off yuh p?”
There was no time for a pause, as each artiste came and performed quickly.
Lutan Fyah took to The Battlefield, child star Dada had the audience going when he declared “my daddy cyan touch mi like nuh gyal pickney, afta mi nuh Britney”, while Cocoa Tea chanted “Babylon yuh throne gone down.”
Cocoa Tea even offered a little freestyle about the early cut-off time, which the crowd enjoyed, as he sang, “how show fi done 2 o’ clock, dis haffi gwaan til’ daylight – how dem fi stop Temple Hall show 2 o’ clock?”
Early nineties
Louie Culture was later called onstage by Cocoa Tea and Culture immediately went for a number of his hits from the early ’90 including Hills and Valleys and Ole Before She Young.
The Monster Empire also injected a burst of energy onstage, before making way for the Gangster for life, Mavado at 2 a.m., when MC Nuffy introduced him to the stage.
Mavado took the stage to screams and cheers as he declared I’m On The Rock.
After touching a few more songs, he too paused to give a reminder, “remember the time ting and di time is running.”
He then quickly picked up his Chiney K and told what ‘The gangsta life is like’ before looking to The Brown Bottle.
Mavado was, however, not allowed to leave the stage before performing Money Changer, and he also said, “yow Jay Z sey mi fi tell uno dis,” as he did a portion of the rapper’s section of I’m On The Rock.
The likes of Einstein, Zumjay and others gave brief performances before making way for the man of the hour, Sizzla Kalonji, who took the stage at 2:20 a.m. to dimmed lights and a chanting audience.
Sizzla, who came to ‘Smoke di herb an get a humble thought’ later paused to add his reminder about the early lock off time.
“Dem sey a 2 o’ clock but yuh done know, wi a gwaan bun di fire,” Sizzla declared as he jumped right back into his set on stage, with songs like Simplicity.
Another pause, but this time to address a burning issue, Sizzla said, “wha day yah mi deh pon a plane coming from New York an mi si inna di papa dem sey homosexuals give Jamaica deadline. All a who bun byman push up uno hand in di air,” he shouted as he sang, “No, no, no, no way!”
Sizzla then went on to perform a slew of other hits like Rastaman Don’t Apologise, Dry Cry and Rise To The Occasion.
He was later joined by Spragga Benz on stage who declared, “A rasta run di world”, the Twin of Twins also came and made it clear, “wi nah trus nuh rising star” and Hollow Point and others also had a taste of the action on stage.
Sizzla’s ‘Rise to the Occasion IV’ was indeed a success and patrons were left with no complaints except for the early ending.
Source: JamaicaStar
Comment