KINGSTON, Jamaica — The fire is no longer just on the riddim. It has reached the pulpit.

Gospel deejay Mr. Gallimore has launched a blistering musical response to reggae artiste Yaksta, accusing the Rastafarian firebrand of sowing spiritual doubt among young Jamaicans with his provocative declaration: “(expletive deleted) Jesus nah come save we.”

Gallimore’s answer is “What A Hell,” a hard-hitting gospel track first recorded over the popular Hill and Gully Ride rhythm. And if there was any doubt about his target, the video makes it clear: an AI-generated representation of Yaksta is shown burning in the fiery pits of hell.

Ouch.

“This is a warning,” Gallimore insisted. “I am not sending anyone to hell. It’s just a warning.”

The controversy has given the record plenty of heat. Gallimore says the video has racked up 28,000 views in two weeks, while an alternative version produced by Billboard-charting producer Jon FX has climbed to No. 2 on the iTunes World Music chart.

Yaksta, however, isn’t exactly trembling.

Approached for comment, the self-styled Bush Lawd said he did not know who Mr. Gallimore was and had never heard the song.

He was also “not interested in warring with nuh gospel artiste”, although he cheerfully doubled down on his earlier declaration that “pastor fi guh look work.”

Then came the punchline.

“God nuh have nuh Zelle,” Yaksta said, referring to the digital payment service.

For Gallimore, however, the subject is deadly serious.

“Jamaica is known to be a Christian country with the most churches per square mile, and the foundation is built on our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,” he said.

“To hear a young and upcoming Rastaman like Yaksta make those blasphemous words, it makes it challenging for us as Christians to mentor young men and tell them about Jesus Christ.”

Gallimore believes Yaksta’s lyrics are making the work of Christian evangelists “ten times harder”.

“This is the same man who said ‘pastor fi go look a work’, but Christians have not been vocal about him, and I am tired of his direct challenge to God,” he said. “We are warriors for Christ.”

Hell on a Riddim

Gallimore decided to fight lyrics with lyrics.

On “What A Hell”, he warns that those who fail to make things right with God will face the consequences on Judgment Day, arguing that Jamaica is slowly sliding into moral ambivalence.

“He is putting doubt in the minds of young men that Jesus Christ has no significance to them, so that cannot sit well with me as a child of God,” Gallimore said.

He invokes scripture to frame the confrontation, quoting the biblical declaration that Christians “wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities” and rulers of darkness.

In other words, Gallimore says it isn’t personal.

Musically, though, he isn’t backing down.

The song was initially recorded over Hill and Gully Ride, one of the summer’s hottest rhythms. But Gallimore’s team was unable to secure clearance from producer Stephen “Di Genius” McGregor.

Instead of shelving the record, P & W Music, headed by Randolph McLean, recruited Jon FX to construct an alternative beat.

That decision appears to have paid off, with Gallimore saying the new version has reached No. 2 on the iTunes World Music chart.

“Big respect to Di Genius, but the Hill and Gully Ride is part of our national heritage,” Gallimore said. “It is bigger than Di Genius. It represents Jamaican culture.”

His team is now promoting both versions.

From Rastafari to the Gospel

There is a delicious irony to Gallimore’s confrontation with Yaksta.

The Trench Town-raised entertainer once walked the Rastafarian road himself.

Kemar “Mr. Gallimore” Gallimore eventually converted to Christianity, transforming his deejaying skills into a vehicle for ministry and describing his spiritual journey as one from “brokenness to victory.”

Conversion didn’t take the dancehall out of him.

It changed what he wanted dancehall to say.

Gallimore continues to use rapid-fire deejaying, reggae basslines and Jamaican street language to preach salvation. Songs including “Brokenness To Victory,” “Oh My God” and “Think Seh Mi Sick In Ya” have helped establish his gospel catalogue.

Now “What A Hell” places him squarely inside one of reggae’s oldest ideological battles.

Jamaican music has wrestled for decades with Christianity, Rastafari, Africa, Babylon and organised religion. Yaksta and Gallimore are simply the latest voices standing on opposite sides of that cultural divide.

Except this time the theological debate comes with an iTunes chart position, a dancehall riddim and an AI-generated vision of hell.

Gallimore once walked the Rastafarian road. Today he is trying to convince another generation that Jesus Christ remains the answer.

So when Yaksta declares “Jesus nah come save we,” Gallimore isn’t prepared to sit quietly in the pews.

The gospel deejay has stepped into the ring—and he’s bringing the Bible to a lyrical gunfight.