Following months of tension between Vybz Kartel, Beenie Man, and their fan bases, the argument surrounding who deserves the title of King of Dancehall will seemingly come to an end at Reggae Sumfest 2025.
After staging Kartel’s Freedom Street concert last year, Josef Bogdanovich, CEO of Downsound Entertainment, announced the deejay as one of Sumfest’s major headliners for this summer’s staging. During the Sumfest 2025 launch on Wednesday at the Iberostar Hotel in St James, Bogdanovich announced that his team would officially be crowning Kartel.
“We are also crowning Vybz Kartel; that’s a big deal,” Bogdanovich told The Jamaica Observer.
Kartel’s planned crowning is far from the first time Sumfest will be honouring a Dancehall great. However, it is undoubtedly the most controversial one.
Beenie Man was previously crowned King of Dancehall in 2009 at Reggae Sumfest. Additionally, Lady Saw was crowned Queen of Dancehall in 2014 at the event.
While Spice was later crowned Queen of Dancehall at Reggae Sumfest in 2022, it was only after Lady Saw left her throne, so to speak, when she joined Christianity and became a gospel artiste. However, Beenie Man has strongly defended his title amid several outlets describing Kartel as the King of Dancehall.
Beenie Man recently referenced his 2009 crowning in a recent interview on The Breakfast Club, highlighting that he did not start calling himself the King; he was crowned. The Who Am I artiste also used his Sumfest crowning to defend his title on social media, sharing a video clip from the event on his Instagram page.
The clip featured Kartel himself, praising Beenie Man as the King of Dancehall.
” “Beenie Man you a King of the Dancehall from yuh come outta yo madda belly,” Kartel declared.
Captioning the post, Beenie Man wrote, “Straight from the horse’s mouth, ‘So weh did war bout’?! 1King👑.”
But according to Bogdanovich, Beenie Man’s kingship was never meant to last forever.
“Kings come and go. They can’t be a king all the time,” Bogdanovich said at Sumfest’s launch.
Beenie Man, who is currently on his King of the Dancehall US tour, has not yet reacted to being ousted from his throne by the same people who crowned him years ago.
