Bounty Killer & Lady Saw Strike RIAA Gold With No Doubt, The Warlord Gets Over Controversial ‘Hey Baby’ Video
It seems to have taken Bounty Killer nearly 20 years to get over his wrath, following American band No Doubt’s insertion, against his wishes, of a naked man in the music video for their Grammy-winning, and now Gold-selling collab Hey Baby.
The 2002 song was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on March 8, 2021, along with No Doubt’s Underneath It All with Lady Saw after both tracks sold over 500,000 units. Both songs were produced by veteran duo Sly & Robbie for the group’s 2X Platinum Rock Steady album.
Back in 2002, the controversial video for Hey Baby, not only provided lyrical fodder for Bounty’s then arch-rival Beenie Man, but sent the Coppershot artist scurrying to the studio to defend his own honor. An unrelenting Bounty Killer, then 28 years old, had also blacklisted No Doubt, refusing to perform with them, while insisting that he would not participate in any success of which Jamaicans are ashamed.
But today while speaking on Hey Baby‘s Gold certification, Bounty told IRIEFM “This accomplishment, I am so elated about it and would like to say congratulations to No Doubt on this special accomplishment, big up.”
“Hey Baby 20 years old and now gold strong. I always knew that this collaboration between myself and No Doubt was a special one. This win is not only or me but a definite win for Reggae/Dancehall music. This tells me that the future of our music is solid gold. Kaboom,” he added.
The 47-year-old also shared an Instagram video, featuring his legendary 2002 Superbowl half-time performance of the song with No Doubt at the Louisiana Superdome. “18 years later HEY BABY. Super Bowl with @nodoubt @gwenstefani,” he captioned the post, erasing all doubt that he was still upset with the now-split band.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CMmOhcIJ2C7/
On Thursday, the One General posted a video clip of an interview with No Doubt leader singer Gwen Stefani speaking to DJ Khaled about the Jamaicans with whom she has worked, another indication that he was now at peace with the quartet.
“Making of Hey Baby No Doubt,” he captioned the post, tagging both Gwen and Khaled.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CMlhGU0JTAI/
According to the Warlord, his chagrin had been evoked after he was betrayed by No Doubt who released the video despite his objections, and after they assured him they would remove the ‘offending’ shot featuring No Doubt’s drummer Adrian Young’s naked body with his pubic region blurred out, from the final product.
As recent as 2017, during an interview with Quizz & Macedon, about his Superbowl performance and working with No Doubt, Bounty had opened up about how irate he was when he first saw the video for the Grammy Award-winning song, which is his biggest selling hit to date.
The Living Dangerously artist appeared to be still peeved about Young’s appearance in the video in the nude, during his line “The way you rock your hips, you know that it amaze me”.
“I neva even know what the f__k was Superbowl and I never care. When I saw that naked man in the video I wanted to kill No Doubt. Literally,” Bounty had said in the interview.
“It caused a big problem; it caused publishing problems; it caused relationship problems. Everything broke down because that sh_t was in the video. It was a two-day shoot in California. And Mike Myers shoot the f__ing video and no naked guy was in it – and a naked guy has nothing to do with the storyline of the f__ing song. So when I saw it, I told them take that sh_t out. Caw dat sh_t is going to cause me problems in my culture,” Bounty declared in the interview.
He added: “They agreed. But they still let out the video with it. So instantly everything broke down.”
A still enraged, yet unwavering Bounty Killer had cancelled his performances with No Doubt, at one point stating that “if Jamaica is upset, I ain’t going to accept no success that my culture is not proud of.”
When the Hey Baby video was released, Beenie Man had lampooned the Seaview Gardens native, claiming that the video portrayed Bounty as a gay saying: “That is a Jamaican artist, and that can’t gwan in a Dancehall, no way.”
Bounty had shot to the studio in response to voice the track Look Good on the Martial Arts riddim, a close to four-minute dress down of Beenie Man, in which he warned the Girl Dem Sugar not to entangle his name in gay matters and claimed in the song that Beenie, among other things, was actually the one who had “meet and greet and date and hug up and kiss up Rupaul”.
Despite Bounty’s protestations, the video debuted at number ten on MTV’s Total Request Live, peaking at number three, and also topped VH1’s Top 20 Countdown for three weeks.
The video also went on to win the MTV Video Music Awards for Best Pop Video and Best Group Video in 2002, which Bounty boycotted.
The song itself copped the Grammy award for Best Pop Performance by a duo or Group with Vocal in 2003.
No Doubt also took home a similar award in 2004 for the hit Underneath it All with Queen of the Dancehall Lady Saw, now Minister Marion Hall.
It peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 (No Doubt’s highest ranking single to date on that chart), while hitting number two on Billboard’s Adult Top 40 and number one on Billboard’s US Mainstream Top 40 charts.