There’s no need for a long review here – what happened was exactly what was expected. King Turbo went up against the mighty Younghawk Sound, and when it was all said and done, Younghawk prevailed winning 3 Rounds – One with no need for Tune-fi-Tune. I say these words with no levels of disrespect – but Clash fans already knew the outcome before arriving at the venue to see Younghawk trample over a once feared King Turbo Sound who did manage to win the mandatory 1st Round before things nosedived. King Sharp and his King Turbo Sound may regret now their strategy to play ‘backwards’, dropping new dubs, anthems and combinations in a 1st Round where other Sounds usually use to pace themselves throught the night. Arguably, some of those songs would’ve been best reserved for later Rounds, and King Turbo planted the seeds to punching themselves out early.
It was a rough night for Turbo fans, and it seemed evident again that the glory days of this beloved Scarborough Sound are done. The King Turbo that we see today, despite being heavily armed with dubs, have redefined the meaning of ‘iron balloon’, because over the years when compared to other Canadian Sounds in their caliber, King Turbo has indeed had the most opportunities to ‘bus’, but have consistently failed to triumph in their challenges. The Sound we see today is rusty and only a shadow of the big bad mighty King Turbo that we used to cheer for in the past – those days are gone. Many of today’s remaining King Turbo fans have become pacifists who are now used leaning back against walls or standing out of the limelight with hands in pockets.
I will give credit to King Sharp for showing a slight improvement as the King Turbo mics-man, but in my opinion, he can’t do ‘both’ and is fooling nobody. What I mean by this is that King Sharpe has to chose between the world of clash and the world of jiggy selecting. And finally, what’s with Jr. Selector being the new man behind the controls for Turbo? According to King Turbo’s Slingshot, Jr. Selector approached King Turbo about joining their Sound after he had recently left Soul Survival, so they took him in. Slingshot also confirmed to me that with Jr. Selector now being part of King Turbo strategically relieves the Sound from their reliance on Spex, who can now rest easy because when it comes to mixing precision, Jr. Selector may be as good or even better, as proven in his past Fully Loaded competitions where judges had no choice but to give him perfect scores for mixing ability.
As for Spex’s security with King Turbo, one will have to wait and see, I’m not sure how much sense it makes and how fair it is to the other ten or so members of the King Turbo team for Spex, who plays mostly for himself and rarely appears with King Turbo (a no-show at this clash) to serve two masters and commission off the King Turbo name while the rest of the Sound earns very little income. Of course, this a whole different can of worms, so we’ll ‘go there’ another time! For now, I am at least happy that King Turbo decided to accept a clash, it’s been a long time, and I give them respect for that. Sometimes you have to lose in order to win!
Looking at the ‘other’ side of the story – Younghawk, representing the Bronx, performed like a Sound truly in their element. Big up a very confident and collected Jamie Hype, the lone Younghawk selector-micsman who has been on somewhat of a roll as far as clashes are concerned. Jamie Hype and his Younghawk Sound represents the new blood in Dancehall, Sounds who are capable and enthused about clashing on an almost weekly basis, and having no fear doing it. Younghawk’s recent win in Bermuda and their victory in Germany over hometown Supersonic Sound may be their sweetest victories to date, but many here know Younghawk because of the beating they put on Soul Survival, Eclipse and Innocent last time they were here in Toronto.
Make no mistake about it, Younghawk is not a walk-over Sound. They may represent new blood today, but ironically, they go back to the 90’s era where sounds reigning included the likes of the mighty Earth Ruler and King Adies. Most of today’s Sound Clash fraternity will give Younghawk a ‘pass’, the only criticism being that to date, they have only beat up ‘b-class’ Sounds, not yet going up against New York giants the likes of King Adies, LP and a few more heavy hitters.
Oh yeah – going back to the clash – Younghawk had down his research and knew all the goods on King Turbo, already having a close association with King Turbo black sheep Ricky Turbo. As far as my review is concerned, Jamie Hype, after losing Round One, cruised through to win his next three Rounds using an old skool traditional method of killing sounds. He was right on as a selector, making not of every speech that came out of King Sharp’s mouth before creatively counter acting them with good speech followed by big tunes that connected to the story. Musically, it was not even close, and performance wise, it was Younghawk all night. Ironically, Jamie Hype didn’t need to do anything ‘special’, he actually got away with playing nothing out of the ordinary, as he have the massive the same old ‘regular’ songs used world wide to kill Sounds, but he played them right. When it came down to it, it was a classic case of money vurses talent; Turbo has more dubs, perhaps way more than Younghawk, but Jamie’s talent stood out loud and clear, and in the end an initially overexcited King Sharp had to humble himself and take a beating once Jamie went into 2nd gear.
Enjoy the Pics – most of them were taken by Lisa West. The Audio has been promised to me, so if you don’t see it on this post, check back inna day. Big up the Promoters, a good job and a decent clash, the massive were satisfied despite having to leave wounded with tails between legs and heads hung down. Congratulations again to Jamie Hype and his Younghawk Sound.
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