AdiDja Palmer and David Brooks have loomed large on the dancehall stage for most of the past five years becoming household names, Vybz Kartel and Mavado.

Palmer (Kartel) of the 'Gaza Empire' and Brooks (Mavado) from the 'Gully Side' have released hit song after hit song with many of these leaving the confines of the dancehall despite not being fit for airplay.

For the uninitiated, many of the Kartel and Mavado songs glorify the 'gangster' life and speak casually about killing rivals "in broad daylight".

To compound it, the two head crews of other artistes, including women, who echo the violent and sexual explicit lyrics of the leaders.

Both artistes claim that their feud is lyrical and not intended to lead to physical confrontations, but it appears that they have not told that to their supporters.

violent clashes

For years, the Kartel and Mavado dispute has resulted in violent clashes in several inner-city communities. Just ask the people of Mannings Hill Road in the Corporate Area who early this year watched while men armed with knives and machetes clashed over the Gaza and the Gully leaving at least two nursing wounds.

Now the cancer is spreading with Gaza and Gully scribbled almost everywhere across the island.

The rivalry has also moved into schools with boys and girls declaring their allegiance to Gaza and Gully and making it known that they are well prepared to fight anyone who says otherwise.

In 2007, as the feud played out in the dancehall, then Deputy Commissioner Mark Shields was among the persons who managed to arrange a public "smoking of the peace pipe" between the two.

They apologised to their fans and urged them to stop using their music as a tool to start violence.

At that time, Kartel claimed: "Gaza/Gully is just a musical rivalry between the barber (Mavado) and I, and I think the garrison understands that this is only entertainment."

"It is a lyrical battle that sometimes brings heated verbal arguments and very rare instances of physical altercations, but no more than political or religious debates have done and will continue doing," argued Mavado.

But months later, the dissing songs returned with a vengeance and the two were back at their lyrical worst.

civil war

The feud, which was initially confined to the inner city quickly exploded into the 'outer city' giving middle- and upper-class Jamaica a frightening look at the almost civil war that had waged undetected and under-reported.

Solid middle-class communities, traditional high schools and uptown Jamaicans are now seeing Gaza and Gully written on their walls and kerbs.

Suddenly, the matter has attracted the attention of the nation's Parliament which says it wants to consider what can be done.

But the hope is that Parliament, and all well-thinking Jamaicans, will look not just at Mavado and Kartel, but the wider dancehall phenomenon which appears to be going through a scary transformation.

While that happens, Kartel and Mavado will continue to stand out as what's wrong in Jamaica's dancehall at this time and will remain among The Sunday Gleaner's People Under Pressure.