Gaza vs Gully EP Part 1 (2006 - 2008)

This Legendary Dancehall beef stemmed from Bounty Killer and Beenie Man becoming enemies for the third time in their careers in mid-2006. Vybz Kartel, known as Bounty Killer’s musical son, was put in a predicament where he had to pick a side in their beef. He was good friends with Beenie Man and he saw Bounty Killer as a good friend/mentor. Kartel put himself in an even deeper hole when he did a song with D'Angel, Bounty Killer’s ex-girlfriend and Beenie Man’s new wife at the time. The Alliance side-eyed him for this gesture, but they didn’t let it get in the way of their brotherhood. It also seemed that Kartel was moving more to Beenie’s side when he attended his wedding when he got married to D'Angel. When the Bounty/Beenie beef started getting serious, Kartel decided to not take either side and stay neutral, meaning he isn’t defending Bounty, but also isn’t defending Beenie Man. Bounty didn’t agree with what he was doing, but Kartel saw it as a sort of revenge because of another beef in the past that no one in the Alliance helped him with. After a violent incident at Mavado’s birthday party in December of 2006, Kartel decided he was done with the Alliance for good and left the group.

A series of songs and counteraction songs ensued – the main proponents being Kartel and Mavado, a young rising star at the time. Mavado stepped up to the plate and started a beef with Kartel because he had the utmost loyalty to Bounty Killer for bringing him into the dancehall scene and helping him become who he is today. Kartel saw him as no challenge, so he dissed him back, and the back and forth continued into the new year. Because of how dangerous this “lyrical” beef was getting, a police-overseen press conference was held in March of 2007, and both Mavado and Vybz Kartel publicly announced an end to hostilities and apologized to fans.

However, by the summer of 2008, tensions flared with a renewal of “diss tracks” from each artist, and a lyrical clash between the two at Sting 2008 left mixed views as to the “winner”. Most of 2009 saw a continuation of the public feud, which dominated Jamaican media and, to a certain extent, Jamaican culture, with the two artists' factions, Gaza (Kartel) and Gully (Mavado), being adopted by Jamaican youth, in some cases leading to street violence.