June 12, 1972. Kingston, Jamaica. Trench town rocks once more, as Miss Ivy bears her last son, Rodney Basil Price, into its surrounds. Jamaica balances on the edge of another bloody chapter, as war is about to be waged on its streets in the name of politics.

One of nine children, Rodney’s destiny would be irrevocably shaped by the landscapes of inner city Kingston, where tribalism and poverty battle for the morals of the hungry and the desperate.

Leaving Trench town soon after, Miss Ivy relocates her family to Riverton City, a community founded on the Kingston City dump. Once known as ‘Dungle,’ the sprawling rubbish heap is a vital resource to many of its inhabitants.

Clothed just by ‘tear-up-batty’ pants, Rodney would sneak out late at night to hear the music thundering from speaker boxes strung up in the community, belonging to the sound system owned by his Father, affectionately known as Breezer.

“I used to just grab the mic and vibe up the place with my arguments and slangs!” remembers Bounty of the beginning. “I never had any lyrics of my own. Once I went to take the microphone at a talent show in Riverton. I intended to DJ, but I just opened my mouth and began to sing Junior Reid’s ‘Woman Make Your Waistline Roll!’ Even though it didn’t work out how I planned it, the crowd were hyped by it so I decided to build my own lyrics.”

 Rodney’s first lyrics strained over a raw, monotone melody, but the topic mapped out the conscious vein that would pulse through his music in the years ahead; a map that would lead his people to crown him the Poor People’s Governor. “When I was a yute I lived down in the gully, inna mi tear-up pants people used to laugh after me” he chanted. Young Rodney had become the Bounty Hunter.

Rodney’s preteen years saw another family relocation, a little further along Kingston’s Spanish Town Rd, to the housing scheme of Seaview Gardens, where neighbourhoods are divided into areas such as ‘Shotgun’ and ‘Vietnam.’ Jamaica’s recent history has been littered by politically motivated gunplay, and in the mid-80’s gunshot regularly cracked across the political divide between warring factions operating in the locale.

One sportingly hot afternoon, whilst walking home from school with friends, a barrage of those careless bullets were traded through the air, ripping through Rodney’s young flesh in the crossfire. He had become a victim of tribal war, aged 14. “All I was thinking about in the hospital was vengeance,” he relays intensely. “All I wanted to do was kill who tried to kill me. I was meditating pure revenge.” In the days he spent in hospital recovering, the aspiring Bounty Hunter came to a forceful conclusion: “Since mi get shot it was time to let them do the hunting and time for me do the killing.” And so the Bounty Killer was born.

Hard time style would not go away, the harsh reality of ghetto economics ruling out the completion of a school education for Rodney. He often had to utilise the hustlin’ abilities instilled in him by his elder brother Ballie Ballie, to help provide food for the family table. “Mama had the opportunity to go a foreign (abroad) many many times, but she decided to stay here with her children,” he says with fondness. “Not everybody would do that, considering the difficulties we faced back then.”

Bounty has always held his mother, Miss Ivy, in the highest esteem, maintaining “Mama” has been the most positive influence in his life; his one true role model. ‘Livicating’ musical odes to “Mama” has been a constant element throughout Bounty’s career - more recently with “Pot of Gold,” done in collaboration with Richie Stephens, and of course the classic “Mama.”

Whilst continuing to hustle wall plates and figurines with Ballie Ballie, Rodney and

Fellow Seaview-ites (and future Scare Dem Crew members) Nitty Kutchie and Boom Dandemite increased their efforts to break into the world of Reggae. They began venturing further a field, to dances and shows staged in the cool interior and rolling verdancy of the Jamaican countryside. The positive response they received further encouraged their burgeoning talents. Take the one-way-in-one-way-out road from Seaview Gardens, cut across Spanish Town Rd and you will end up in Kingston 11 - Waterhouse. Waterhouse is another area of Kingston that is rarely mentioned in the media without the disenfranchising prefix of ‘troubled inner-city community,’ but it’s a part of the planet blessed with an Almighty shower of musical talent. At the hub of the Reggae revolution in the 80’s and early 90’s was record producer King Jammy, whose 1985 timeless ‘Sleng-Teng’ riddim heralded the arrival of digital Dancehall.

By the time young Bounty arrived at King Jammy’s, Boom Dandimite had already begun to garner moderate success from the studio. The fact that Boom had a tune playing on the radio was all the inspiration Bounty needed. Day after day, month after month, the crew would make that journey up to the St Lucia Rd recording studio, awaiting the chance to jump on the next riddim being formulated in the Jammy’s sound lab. Bounty and his crew would be designing lyrics and constructing their flow into the early hours, often having to borrow bicycles from Waterhouse allies to return safely to Seaview under cover of darkness.

It was Bounty’s vocal jack-in-the-box rhyming intros that first drew attention - initially from sound system operators and then from the thousands of Dancehall fans around the world listening to the audio tapes of live sessions, intrigued by the unique voice-pattern introducing custom-built songs played by sound systems like Metro media and Bodyguard. Bounty’s sound system clash classic - ‘Dub Fi Dub’ - changed the way in which sound system selectors approached their task. Bounty’s impact on sound system culture has been immeasurable.

When the time came to voice at Jammy’s, Bounty opted for a song that reflected his life experiences; ‘Copper shot’ was the self-explanatory title, but at that time King Jammy was trying to steer his label clear of songs that paid homage to guns, and passed on the record. However, Uncle T - Jammy’s brother - realised the potential and quickly ushered Bounty under his own wing. ‘Copper shot’ was heard by New York-based Johnny Wonder, a pivotal figure in North American Dancehall Reggae, who went crazy when he heard it, instantly recognising the potential of its hardcore appeal to the urban markets Stateside. Ironically ‘Copper shot’ became an underground hit in New York before taking off in Jamaica. Its popularity ensured that Bounty is forever endeared to the Boroughs of New York.

‘Spy Fi Die,’ ‘Guns Out,’ ‘Lodge’ and more uncompromising releases followed, each increasing the velocity and reach of Bounty’s profile. They kicked off an all-out attack that’s yet to cease, with the subsequent release of hundreds of singles. Bounty left the Jammy’s camp in 1995 and formed his own Scare Dem Productions and Priceless Records labels.