Ace DJ Bounty Killer, aka The Warlord has issued a stinging challenge to the trio of Jamaica's leading dancehall exponents at Sting '09 slated for the Jamworld Entertainment Complex on Boxing Day, December 26.

"Mek dem come, a gwine line up the whole a dem an tek dem out," said Bounty Killer in a recent interview.

Widely regarded as the best hard core deejay up until fairly recently, the Warlord has of late been challenged by persistent reports that he has lost his ascendant position in dancehall and has endured taunts from former protégé Vybz Kartel that he is over.

But the deejay, who has nurtured the careers of several of the genre's hottest talents, is determined to end all arguments and "stomp" his class and the 'pretenders to his title' in the process.

"Warlord on the attack again, full suit a black again, nuh body nuh badda dan we, Alliance wi name, all a dem a mi pickney dem," said Bounty Killer.

A survey by the University of the West Indies on dancehall recently determined that there has been a huge shift in popular support among 15-to 24-year-olds to Vybz Kartel and Mavado and away from the dominance of Beenie Man and Bounty Killer.

Could the mantle of dancehall be passing from one of its most celebrated icons? And what of Beenie Man, Bounty Killer's nemesis and the self-proclaimed 'King of the Dancehall' who remains extremely active locally and internationally and who appears to have lost none of his class?

Dancehall's best have something to prove.