Reggae artiste Droop Lion delivered a powerful 15-minute set at Sting, held at Plantation Cove in St Ann on Boxing Day.

Dressed in a white flowing gown with a Rastafarian scarf, the diminutive singer did songs such as Pray for Them and Kata Fi the Load. He got forwards for the hit song Hello Carol and Freeway.

“This was my third time performing at Sting. I had to come among the youths. Sting is a show that reproduces the spirit of the ghetto in an acting and performance format. I hear a lot of older artistes criticising the show, and I know that Sting build them. These artistes know that Sting laid the foundation for some of the biggest movements in reggae and everyone knows that, you can’t walk into a hive of bees and don’t get no swelling, Sting had to sting,” he said.

Droop Lion said that the youth had inherited the “aesthetics of disrespect” from the older generation of artistes and should not be unduly criticised for youthful exuberance.

“Ah so dem set the thing before, dem create the aesthetics of disrespect, but you can’t just leave the youths without guidance. The youths dem need realise say that this is business, is a learning process for the youths, when youths a grow, you don’t expect them to sit down one place and walk in a straight line, youths do youthful things, they make mistakes, not even mistakes, but this is part of a learning process. I see the show that is a rebirth of Sting, it come back with the stigma, and that is Sting,” he said.