Beenie Man performing in a video presentation aired during the BET Awards. (Photos: YouTube)
Dancehall superstar Beenie Man has delivered a heartfelt apology to the people of Trinidad and Tobago for his recent comments about ‘doubles’, a popular food item in the twin island republic.
“I am apologising to everybody who eat doubles. I am apologising to everyone who eats doubles, everyone who cook doubles, and who mek doubles, I apologise sincerely,” Beenie Man told Observer Online.
“I would never diss Trinidad, Trinidad ah mi place, Bravo ah mi best friend, mi go de and spend months so I would never diss Trinidad.”
Doubles is an iconic Trinidadian street food which is essentially a delicious sloppy sandwich made with two pillowy soft baras—flat fried breads—filled with channa, also known as curried chickpeas.
“Doubles sell pon the roadside, is a corner ting, just like we sell jerk chicken on the corner, dem have doubles, is a corner ting. So is not like mi ah disrespect people weh sell doubles on the roadside, am just sorry that people got offended by how I expressed myself. I am really sorry,” Beenie Man said.
The Girls Dem Sugar singer said that a soca artiste had told him that stray dogs won’t eat doubles and he decided to try a little behavioural experiment to test the hypothesis with the channa-and-bara favourite. But the stray dog declined.
“Mi go pon the strip, me de de ah eat some doubles, me and Kurt Riley, and Riley eat four doubles and mi say ‘alright mi ah go try one’, and when mi reach the chick peas and the pepper part, mi say ‘alright mi a go throw away the rest’. Same time the dog a pass and mi say ‘see some food ya’ and the dog smell the doubles and walk past it because dogs don’t like pepper,” Beenie Man said.
“As an Ole Dawg myself, mi never like pepper, and the stray dog never like pepper, so mi understand. It wasn’t meant to be a disrespect. So if me offend anyone who eat doubles, I apologise,” he reiterated.
The dancehall legend, whose real name is Moses Davis, had made the controversial comment while on the Drink Champs podcast with hosts NORE (Victor James Santiago Jr) and DJ EFN (Eric Fernando Narciandi), which premiered last Saturday.
Beenie Man had been responding to a follow-up question by the hosts based on whether he eats doubles, after Beenie Man had admitted that Trinidad was his favourite country besides Jamaica.
“I love Trinidad, but I don’t eat doubles, because dogs don’t eat doubles and I don’t eat anything that dogs don’t eat. I don’t eat doubles,” Beenie Man said at the time.
“It (doubles) is nice but once I threw it to the dog and the dog didn’t eat it…dogs eat chicken, dogs eat fish, dogs eat dumplings…but the dog won’t eat the doubles.”
Trinidadians have been angered by his statements. leaving several comments online as social media blew up in defence of doubles. Even die-hard Beenie fans were ticked off. There were calls to ‘cancel’ the dancehall artiste, with some vowing to boycott his music and Beenie Man’s next concert in T&T, recalling that they had patronised his last local show in 2022 in Port of Spain.
Others merely declared that they had “unfollowed” the artiste on social media.
Among those apparently taking offence was Foreign and Caricom Affairs Minister Dr Amery Browne, who appeared to throw shade at the singer via a Facebook post. The minister captioned his post with an emoji of the T&T flag and the words “Sim Simma”, quoting the famous hook line from Beenie Man’s Billboard hit Who Am I.
Beenie Man is booked to perform at several upcoming shows in the United States as he recently got his US work permit.