Blacc Widdo crew receives its winners' cheque from the Guinness girls. Also in picture is Gareth Geddes (second right), brand manager of Guinness. - Photos by Dalton Laing

Blacc Widdo from Frome in Westmoreland and the St Elizabeth-based Bredda Hype were early qualifiers for the semi-final round of the Guinness Sounds of Greatness competition.

In what the organisers say is the largest crowd they have seen since the start of the competition, the sports grounds at Whitehouse in Westmoreland was full to capacity Saturday night as local supporters and busloads of out-of-town fans converged to support the event.

It was Bredda Hype and Black Kat that were on stage in the first encounter and Bredda Hype clearly outplayed Black Kat. Bredda Hype was out front in all three categories: consistency of juggling, versatility and toasting. The clash of the two Westmoreland sound systems, Blacc Widdo and Black Blunt, however, did not follow that trend.

There were three categories in the competition and Blacc Widdo won the first two leaving just the dub-for-dub category for Black Blunt. The other two categories were a period of juggling for 20 minutes and a tune-for-tune segment.

Black Kat outplayed

In the first encounter, Bredda Hype himself toasted his sound to victory, easily outplaying Black Kat in all three segments.

"We work out all the time and we rehearse a lot," said Bredda Hype after the announcement of his victory. "We make mistakes already and tonight we decided that we not making any."

Fire Agent, the toaster for Black Kat, and his selectors obviously have some homework to do. "We can see that one of the sounds did their homework and came more prepared," agreed both judges, DJ Bones of Irie FM and Déjàvu of LINKS FM.

Blacc Widdo, a relatively new sound, did not have things as easy in the second clash, which was a Westmoreland derby. Although they won the 20-minute juggling segment and the tune-for-tune of 10 songs each, the dub-for-dub segment was handed to Black Blunt of Negril.

Both toasters of Blacc Widdo - Bobby Fresh and Ricky Stereo - teamed up to guide their sound to victory despite the efforts of Juby Speng of Back Blunt. Juby Speng said he believes he lost the event when he called for a dub and his selectors were slow in playing it, which sent the Blacc Widdo's supporters in a frenzy of excitement and claiming victory.

$1 million grand prize

Bredda Hype and Blacc Widdo will move on to the semi-final round $125,000 richer. This is a part of the $3-million cash prize that Guinness has put up for the competition. The eventual winner will receive $1 million on January 9 at Mas Camp in St Andrew at the grand finals.

Gareth Geddes, brand manager of Guinness, said the competition is being used to keep alive one of the founding aspects of dancehall.

"Sound systems form the foundation of dancehall music and it is largely ignored, so we decided that we would bring back dancehall by highlighting the greatest," he said.

The competition has been in Portmore, St James, St Elizabeth and St Mary. The next show is scheduled for Saturday at Folly Oval in Portland where Sound Trooper will go up against Jamrock while Flava Unit will challenge Bass Odyssey.

Bredda Hype in action.