Bounty Killer, Cham And Dave Kelly Went To The Bahamas For One Month To Make New EP
Dancehall champions Bounty Killer, Dave Kelly, and Cham are giving fans an inside look into life in The Bahamas, where they spent one month curating their newly-released EP Time Bomb.
After years of fans calling for a joint project between the deejays following their 1999 hit Another Level, Kelly arranged for them to go off the grid to focus on new music.
“The primary reason for doing that was just to switch off from the chaos of everyday life, being on the hamster wheel, and just stop for a minute, just reconnect with each other, reconnect with nature and make some music,” the Madhouse Records producer said in a new documentary.
Cham elaborated on Kelly’s desire to get them away from “distractions,” highlighting what such isolation could produce from Bounty, whom he referred to by his given name, Rodney Pryce.
“Me and Dave always seh Bahamas feel like Jamaica, but it’s more peaceful and more calm, and we knew that if we could get Rodney out of Jamaica just fi come and work and focus on music, it would go to a next level because we know the power weh Rodney have, vocal wise. He’s one of the baddest deejays ever, but if you can get him away from the distraction in Jamaica, get him away from the noise where him can just lock in and focus on the music, we know that would be like a time bomb.”
Cham and Bounty first met in the mid-90s at Arrows recording studio in East Kingston. At the time, Cham, a student of Calabar High School, was a proud fan of Bounty’s work, and soon became his protégé as ‘The Warlord’ was also drawn to his dedication and enthusiasm.
From taking on the road together to Cham introducing Bounty to Kelly in 1996, the artists developed a brotherhood that saw them being inseparable. So inseparable, that they even bought the same cars and clothes (coloured for Cham, of course, as Bounty was in his all-black phase).
“You don’t see one without the other,” Cham said. “We lived in the same apartment complex… From morning til night we’d see each other cause we’d get up in the morning. We’d be on the sands together… We’d jog out by Bull Bay, Cable Hut beach, every morning, and do bearings after… Coming back, eat some porridge. By time 9:30a.m., we in the studio doing dubs… Round by time we finish dub studio, we by Madhouse Records, eat some lunch…so, we basically were living together.”
Their brotherhood suffered a falling out in the early 2000s, but the two later reconciled and have finally granted fans their longstanding wish for a joint project.
“Whenever Bounty Killer and Baby Cham and Dave Kelly link up, it’s always some musical magic that comes out, so, that’s what we expect coming out of this – nothing less,” Bounty said.
But it wasn’t just all work. As they each relayed, having fun is a main ingredient to their collaborative success.
“A lot of people see Rodney and dem wouldn’t even know the man will get up everyday and cook…” Cham shared. “Dem man deh get up every morning, him haffi get him tea inna the morning. Dem man deh put on some porridge, (and) by midday, you know some fish a steam up or some brown stew chicken… It’s just one big family.
“You a talk bout go supermarket together. You have people at the supermarket can’t believe that’s Bounty Killer and Baby Cham shopping, and it’s me pushing the trolley or him pushing the trolley, it doesn’t even matter. We just a hold we vibe and a live like two brothers… I think that is what Bahamas has given us; just that peaceful, tranquility vibe where we can just chill and do what we want to do.”
Kelly added, “We drink, we laugh, we run joke, we ride bicycle, we go a beach. We just having fun and make it flow organically and natural like it used to.”
Time Bomb features seven tracks, including the intoxicating Slow Motion featuring Dexta Daps.