The mountain has given birth to a mouse. The much-anticipated clash between Vybz Kartel and Mavado ended up fizzling out. Ninjaman, on bad terms with Kartel since an altercation on the same Sting stage in 2003, declared Mavado the winner at the end of the clash, but that ran against the flow of the night.
For it was Vybz Kartel who stayed on stage last, while the Gully God slipped away several times, drawing Kartel's sniggers at his "cowardice".
Dominant in his provocations and his rhymes, Vybz Kartel, decked out in a full soldier's outfit, brandished a fake coffin supposedly meant to be Mavado's, the "Barber Boy". Once off stage, he hurried to record a track, Don't run, to tell his side of the clash (listen below).
Both Mavado and Kartel had their share of boos and bursts of applause among the supporters of the two artists, and the debate is far from done feeding the Jamaican gossip columns. One winner, however, seems obvious: the promoters of the show.