Dancehall icons Rodney “Bounty Killer” Pryce and Orville “Shaggy” Burrell have donated US$10,000 (J$15.8m) towards fellow entertainer Lieutenant Stitchie’s medical expenses.

The 59-year-old Stitchie, whose real name is Cleveland Laing, has been ill for a while after suffering brain haemorrhage.

A GoFundMe account was established to assist with his recovery after surgery and Bounty Killer and Shaggy stepped up through the Bounty Killer Foundation.

“Stitchie has touched me musically from I was a youth until I have learned who Stitchie is and he is a great person and good man to me,” said Bounty Killer at the handing-over ceremony last Thursday, October 3, 2024.

“We all see that Stitchie need some help. So, I am pleading to the music industry insiders more than the general public because this is a problem with the music industry, we don’t come together for each other and that’s very saddening to me,” he noted.

“Today we gather here to make a monetary donation to Cleveland’s wife Sophia and we all have to cheer her up,” he added.

Lieutenant Stitchie made a name for himself in the dancehall circles in the 1980s before switching to Gospel in 1997 after surviving a car accident.

The Spanish Town native was a witty deejay and had hit songs such as Wear Yuh Size, Natty Dread, Big Broad Hips and Fast and Pray, which included lyrics about Bounty Killer.

In 1999 he released his first Gospel album, To God Be the Glory and in 2002, he won the Outstanding Male Reggae Vocal Performance of the Year award at Caribbean Gospel Music Marlin Awards.

In 2012, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Cornerstone Christian University in Florida in recognition of his contribution to gospel reggae music.

In 2021, he was awarded the Order of Distinction, Jamaica’s sixth highest award.