Behind the numbers of the Beenie Man Vs Bounty Killa Verzuz Clash
Men lie, Women lie but numbers don’t, is a common refrain and with good reason as for many aspects about modern life is all about the triangulation of numbers and applying those numbers to everyday living. So, it was literally a joy to both witness and analyze the overwhelming quantitative success, the Bounty Killer vs Beenie Man ‘clash’ had on the Instagram Live of the VerzuzTV page. Created by legendary music producers Timbaland and Swizz Beats, VerzuzTV was built to entertain the millions of music fans
Men lie, Women lie but numbers don’t, is a common refrain and with good reason as for many aspects about modern life is all about the triangulation of numbers and applying those numbers to everyday living. So, it was literally a joy to both witness and analyze the overwhelming quantitative success, the Bounty Killer vs Beenie Man ‘clash’ had on the Instagram Live of the VerzuzTV page. Created by legendary music producers Timbaland and Swizz Beats, VerzuzTV was built to entertain the millions of music fans who were, unfortunately, forced to stay inside due to coronavirus pandemic. It was a simple concept, have two people of a similar musical background engage in a friendly ‘battle’ on the Instagram Live feature. While the endgame was not to find out who won or lost, it was for the myriad of fans who would get a chance to relive many of their favourite songs and the memories that come along with them. It also is a space that encourages interaction between the artistes featured and the whosoever happens to be logged in on the page at the time. So, after several weeks of quite notable matchups including the original Timbaland vs Swizz Beatz battle, Teddy Riley vs Babyface, Scott Storch vs Manny Fresh and Erykah Badu vs Jill Scott; leading up to Memorial Day weekend (May 22-24), it was announced that Bounty Killer and Beenie Man would have their turn to match wits and extensive catalogues on the Verzuz platform. After the initial jubilation, some apprehension begun to surface on social media and beyond. As both entertainers maintain their primary residence outside of the United States of America, on the island of Jamaica, many fans from Jamaicans living in Jamaica to the Jamaican Diaspora around the world and even just people who love dancehall music who otherwise have no direct link to the country was concerned about firstly the format and secondly how would Jamaica’s two main telecom companies handle the sure strain that a live broadcast would surely bring. However, all that initial uneasiness was proved to be pre event ‘butterflies’ as the live online event met and even exceeded expectations. Setup was a bit different from previous incarnations, which were conducted utilizing the split screen option as each participant had their sets at different locations throughout the length and breadth of the United States. This Verzuz had one fixed camera running directly through a 200mb pipeline provided by Jamaican telecom giant Digicel which minimized the possibility of any signal fluctuation throughout the night. This fixed camera was focused on a backdrop that had tons of dancehall flyers, two disc jockeys with accompanying turntables plus laptops and the featured stars of the night Bounty Killer and Beenie Man. The entire broadcast was handled, as it should, if it was a matter of national pride for everyone involved to put on a great dancehall show because it was being watched by the entire globe. Each disc jockey got a chance to get the captive audience ready for the main event, again a quite uncommon situation for the unfamiliar, a perfect time-wasting tactic primarily because it allowed the online audience numbers to build and have the mood set for a trip down memory lane. By the time the national anthem had concluded, yes they did that too to good effect I might add, over 480,000 devices had locked in among them quite a few of A-list observers such Idris Elba, Busta Rhymes, Sean Paul, Keri Hilson and Rihanna, was acknowledged with one of the more hilarious shoutouts on the night by Bounty Killer. While right here in Jamaica, it seemed that everyone who could watch the event, watched the event: industry observers, dancehall patrons and politicians headlined by the country’s current Prime Minister Andrew Holness; days after announcing the extension of an islandwide curfew due to the coronavirus pandemic. The enforcement of these orders has decimated Jamaica’s multimillion dollar entertainment industry over the last few months. So, it was no shock, to those familiar with the dancehall space and its components, to see a rogue police officer show up to essentially ‘lock off di dance’. In addition to the regular curfew observance, there was a special mandate to get people off the streets as it was also Labour Day weekend. So, the officer was certainly in his right to enforce the laws of the land however luckily cooler heads prevailed and after a few minutes of ‘memeable’ interactions the show was allowed to go on. And go on it did to much merriment and great fanfare, snippets of which could be found posted all around the internet. https://www.ketchcaribbean.com/best-memes-from-beenie-man-bounty-killas-verzuz-battle/
However, the most interesting result of all this, is the numbers that have been made available to the public. In addition to the aforementioned 480,000 viewers on the live stream, it was announced that 3.7 million people – all told – watched the show and had over one billion impressions registered across all platforms during the live event. It was the biggest Verzuz by far, more than doubling the reach of the previous best. Billboard even created a poll were fans were asked which of the Verzuz battles has been their favourite thus far. Beenie and Bounty’s clash emerged as the most revered, with an astounding 44.68% of the votes. Jill Scott and Eryka Badu follow in a distant second place with 22.87%. RZA vs. DJ Premier and Teddy Riley vs. Babyface tied, and both peaked 6.38% in the third position.
Critically, both Bounty Killer and Beenie Man saw significant increases in their US streaming numbers. Bounty Killer saw a combined 367,000 U.S. on-demand streams on the 23rd and 24th, compared to 94,000 in the two days before, a surge of 291% and Beenie Man on both the battle day (23rd) and following day (24th) had a total of 906,000 U.S. streams, a 187.5% increase from his 315,000 streams in the two days preceding the event as per Billboard’s website. https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/chart-beat/9393575/beenie-man-bounty-killer-verzuz-best-streaming-days-2020
These overwhelming figures proves that there remains a market for these veterans and this market needs to be tapped into. Fellow Jamaican entertainer Shaggy expressed his wish for these dancehall stalwarts to given the opportunity to once again earn money performing in the States. “It’s about time we rally the powers that be to free up these artistes …, allow them travelling visas and work permits so they can travel freely to promote our culture and represent our brand. I am calling on the Jamaican Government, the US ambassador, and the United States Embassy to at least start having a dialogue where this is concerned. The culture needs it, the music needs it, the economy needs it, the country needs it, and the fans need it” Shaggy expressed via Instagram. And notable politician Damion Crawford had one post and a detailed thread on Twitter about how he believes that this Verzuz matchup could move to save not only Jamaican entertainment business post Covid-19 but the Jamaican tourism sector in its entirety.
And while that might seem like a bridge too far for most, there is arguing with the numbers in terms of visibility this clash has brought to the island and its culture. In addition to the fact for yet another night there were people around the world wishing they were having fun in Jamaica thanks to the legends Bounty Killer and Beenie Man.
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