There is a long tradition of "mic sharking" in the dancehall business. I have seen on numerous occasion where you have informal stage shows and bunch a of artiste seeking means of extending their reach to the niche ... and thus try to get as much stage time or mic time as he/she possibly can. Its almost typical to have a number of artiste on stage at the same time and one would grab the mic and do his piece for a forward.. it means a lot. There are cases of more formal shows where an artiste is not booked for the show but turns up and takes his turn on the microphone.
Recently at the Sting 2009 show Aidonia, one of the big DJ's in Jamaica, was not booked for the show but he was allowed to perform. A lot of the times artiste have quite a few acts in their entourage and each has to show their skills and facilitate personal marketing and buss.... Shaggy was not too pleased about the entourage that some scheduled acts took to his show recently as tickets had to be provided for them which could have well garnered additional sums of money for his charity drive.
In the latest of the microphone shark attack was the Sean Kingston concert over the weekend. Beenie Man was not booked, performed and disrupted the flow of things for Elephant Man. Elephant Man was upset and very much disgruntled when his set at the show was cut off. Though Beenie man was called on stage by Sean Kingston, I know that Beenie have a way of "enca-ring" for the MIc.. and Sean must have felt sorry for him ,,seeing that the 1995-99 dancehall king yearning to come on stage. Demarco had to abbreviate his set to accommodate Beenie.. though it went well more or less for the fans ... Elephant Man got some boos when he otter his disgust...