Click Here to See & Listen to the Tune-fi-Tune showdown between Younghawk and Sniper 05.27.17

Younghawk Sound emerged victorious at the Park The Hearse Bury The Dead Sound Clash that took place last Saturday May 27th at Time Out-Resto Lounge at 392 Gibaltar Rd. in Mississauga.  After a 1:15 am start-time, Sniper Sound, also the promoters of the Clash, had leapt ahead with a 2 – 0 lead after two Rounds of 20-minutes each per Round, but Jamie and his Younghawk Sound then tied things up in the following two 15-minute Rounds.  There were two 10-minute Rounds added after that, as demanded by the crowd, but this proved detrimental to Sniper who at that point in many attendees opinion, gave away the clash due to the weak selection of tunes chosen.


I think it was Milo from Super Fresh who upon leaving a clash he described as ‘boring’, accused Sniper for now playing the type of tunes ‘designed’ to make people leave the event. It was unfortunate that after a healthy beginning (Sniper played really well in Rounds 1 & 2 and had the crowd going), it was a disappointing ending for Necus Famouz and Sniper, as their over-supportive crowd found no reasons to inspire them to stay true to their partisan nature as time went on.  The tune-fi-tune that followed afterwards was just the final nail in the coffin for Sniper, who eventually was defeated 6-1 in a landslide.


The clash boasted a decent crowd in attendance with over 200 people inside a decent looking venue that I was seeing for my first time (this made the venue appear pretty full). I also noticed that there were more women in attendance compared to many clashes I attend.  The sound system was re-enforced by Step-A-Choice, and throughout the night there were no technical problems, feedback or selectors yelling for the engineer – a good thing. 

Most fans in attendance may not have noticed it, but the place lacked proper lighting on the stage – most of the clash was witnessed in the dark, made worse by the fact that there was no spotlight for the competitors on the stage.  Worse – both DJ’s used laptops that were raised at a height that blocked their faces, so you could not see the animated facial expressions of the one-man army selectors unless they left their DJ-stations and ventured to the edge of the riser or into the audience. There were several people with video cameras near the front of the audience, but nobody it seemed, carried a video light which often save promoters from poor-lighting issue.


So that’s the clash more or less – and Jamie’s win stream against Canadian Sounds continues. There were a few skirmishes that most likely came as a result of fans who were under their liquor.  In defense of the people who were fighting, I will say they were real fans who came there to enjoy themselves, not to fight.  Sometimes shit happens, and you have to defend tings or feel punked off for life.  The good thing here — no lives, no guns, no bloodshed – just traditional fist fighting from what I could see, and eventually the man dem scuffling left peacefully. I found it fascinating how nobody got scared and fearfully ran out of the venue – the clash crowd is so chilled, nobody was concerned, nobody was so curious that they left their spots to cheer on the fight – this was impressive, mature.


There is one more little incident worth mentioning, especially because the big talk now is how at a juggling event in Germany, Puma (LP International) used his mic to “kunk” King Pin (King Adies) in the head (King Pin could be heard harassing LP by shouting obscenities over Puma’s shoulder as LP was trying to address the crowd on the mic), all captured clearly on audio and video which is now circulating around the world.  In our case, a very animated clash fan and Sniper fan, at one point in the clash, got so hyped, that he felt compelled to answer a tense moment by walking onto Younghawk’s stage and bumping bellies with Jamie, all while Jamie held the mic.  

This is rarely seen in Sound Clash, it is a common rule that there be no physical interaction between sides whether you are a selector or a fan inside a clash.  Words can be thrown an insults can run deep but you do not touch the opposition that is a no-no.  Fortunately, this incident was quickly diluted and the fan was escorted out of the venue by a female companion.  He would later return to the venue and not only keep mannerly for the most part (there was one point where this same female had to restrain him from going up in Jamie’s face a second time), but actually playing peacemaker during a scuffle between another party.


This incident happened early in the clash, but I think it may have been a momentum gainer for Younghawk, Jamie could be heard shouting on the mic after the belly-bumping, “mi nuh tek nuh bloodclaat bad up from nuh bwoy”.  Jamie was out of his city, and was defending his sound to the death – he didn’t run, didn’t back down, didn’t show any fear, didn’t harp on the incident for the rest of the night, didn’t disrespect the fan understanding that the fan just may be too under his liquor….this is a sign of experience, and the crowd seemed to respect the antics. He also insulted Sniper with comments about them not being picked for Canada Rumble, and accusing their loudest cheerleaders for being bought with free tickets from the promoters. Jamie also called Necus a fake Polly Famous. Necus’s only gimmick was to call Younghawk “chickenhawk”.  

In the end, Sniper lost to Younghawk by a 6-1 score in a semi-exciting tune-fi-tune. Congratulations to Younghawk.  And I should apologize on behalf of Canada for the microphone antics during his trophy presentations.  In a clear sign of frustration, some of the man dem on the mic were trying to lewer Jamie to come back to Canada again to clash a next Sound – this was just the wrong time for this and it displayed poor sportsmanship. Yes – he’s making our Canadian Sounds look bad, no?  We keep losing against this man, even though his style as strategies have become predictable.  Time to put him up against the big artillery, no? Rootsman perhaps? I heard someone call their name as a possible challenger.  Oh well, we’ll see.  In the mean time, Jamie takes home another trophy, and Sniper gets to clash again July 22nd at Fully Loaded.   Enjoy the pics (by Ron Nelson), and as for our bad quality (dark) video – at least it comes with some undistorted audio.