It was only a matter of time before self-proclaimed King of the Dancehall, Beenie Man, addressed critics of the Verzuz battle between himself and veteran dancehall artiste Bounty Killer.

While everyone was anticipating the showdown between the two stalwarts, DJ Tony Matterhorn branded them as ‘sell outs’. In an Instagram Live with comedian Majah Hype the DJ criticised the artistes for not giving the same support to local Instagram events.

But while not addressing Tony Matterhorn by name, Beenie Man, in an interview with DJ Wiz from the Wizology show, attributed his criticism to badmind.

“Nobady cuss when di music deh pon BET, nobody cuss when it deh pon di Canadian station.  Now wi a guh do dis pon a international platform, yuh a guh hear ‘why dat platform?’  Dat does not make any sense.

That’s definitely you nuh waa see wi pon da platform deh.  You shoulda ask seh why we, and not your artiste. Dat is di question weh dem waa ask,” he said.

Beenie Man asserts that that Swizz Beatz, the co-creator of the Verzuz platform, has done a lot for dancehall music.

“Do they know how much Jamaican artiste Swizz Beatz mek music for and how much time he has come to Jamaica, and how much Jamaica artiste Swizz Beatz buss in America, including myself?” he asked.

The Grammy-winning artiste wants people to focus instead on the recognition that dancehall music got that night.

“People always upset about stupid things. It’s a platform that everybody wants to see you on where they watch the biggest artistes in the world clash. And now you have two Jamaicans on the same platform and people upset that it’s on a platform like this. Are they serious?”