Bounty Killer Says He’s ‘Still Standing’ After Association With Dudus Led To US Visa Being Canceled

Bounty Killer paused on Tuesday to wish a happy birthday to former Tivoli Gardens strongman, Christopher “Dudus” Coke—his musical association with whom he said resulted in his visa being revoked in 2010.

“Real Don this salute mi G earth strong blessings pon blessings,” Bounty wrote of the now-incarcerated 53-year-old.

“Mi naah sell out either. Dem said mi and Dudus a friend, so dem canceled mi visa. Well, what more can they do me?  That’s all they could’ve done still standing man tuff💪🏿.  It’s A National Holiday 🍾🍾 Happy Birthday To A Real G Dudus 🎉🎁🎂🎊,” he added.

Bounty’s US visa was revoked in 2010, as were those of fellow Dancehall deejays Sizzla, Beenie Man, Aidonia, and Mavado, months after the U.S. government issued an extradition order for Coke on August 25, 2009, over alleged drugs and arms trafficking offenses committed in the United States.

After the extradition request was made, and months before the visas were canceled, several artists, foremost among them Reggae legend Bunny Wailer, had headed into recording studios to voice their support of Dudus, who was also known as Prezzi or the President.

In October 2009, Bunny Wailer had voiced the track Don’t Touch the President, which portrayed the don as a modern-day Robin Hood, who was only set to do good in his neighborhood.

“Dudus is a man of peace who makes sure people in his Tivoli Gardens community don’t commit crimes,” Bunny Wailer was quoted as saying in defence of the song, adding that he penned it in order to warn of civil unrest that would take place in West Kingston resulting from him being moved “away from his people”.  “They haven’t even touched the President and yet so many people have died,” Bunny Wailer had said.

At the time, Billboard magazine, in an April 2010 article titled Dancehall Acts Hit By U.S. Visa Cancelations noted had that there had been “unprecedented en masse cancelation of U.S. visas” belonging to five popular Jamaican dancehall entertainers which had “led to concerns among the reggae community that it is suffering because of a dispute between the two” countries, arising from the refusal of then Prime Minister Bruce Golding’s refusal to acquiesce to the US’s demands for the extradition of Dudus on drug and gun charges.

“The unexpected spike in annulments of U.S. visas belonging to Jamaican citizens is widely speculated to stem from an intensifying dispute between the two countries due to Golding’s unwillingness to extradite Christopher “Dudus” Coke, who faces multiple drug distribution and firearm trafficking charges in the U.S.,” Billboard had noted.

Unlike Bunny Wailer, the Dancehall artists had not recorded songs championing Coke’s cause, but Mavado had appeared at West Kingston Jamboree 2009, an annual stage show which was staged by Dudus’ Tivoli-headquartered company, Presidential Click, where peace between Vybz Kartel and himself was brokered by Coke.

Beenie, Bounty, and Sizzla had appeared on Dudus’ charity show Champions In Action weeks before the US made the extradition request.

The US Embassy at the time had “issued a directive to all airlines operating flights to the U.S. from Jamaica stating that the aforementioned artists were barred from boarding any U.S. bound aircraft”.

At the time, the US Embassy did not state the reason for the revocation, but reissued Aidonia and Mavado with visas sometime after.

On June 22, 2010, Dudus, who had been on the run after the Jamaican government finally signed his extradition request on May 18 that year, was held by the police in the vicinity of Ferry on the Mandela Highway, on the border of St. Andrew and St. Catherine in the company of Reverend Al Miller.  The clergyman had said he was taking him in to the US Embassy in Liguanea.

His interception came days after the Bruce Golding administration declared a state of emergency in Kingston on May 23, as police backed by the military, battled with Coke supporters in what later became known as the Tivoli Incursion.